Madurai
Taking a serious note of indiscriminate stone quarrying in Kanniyakumari district, the Madurai Bench of Madras High Court has directed Kanniyakumari Collector to file a report on the licence granted to quarry operators and whether the National Board for Wildlife approval was obtained to operate the stone quarries.
A Division Bench of Justices N. Kirubakaran and S.S. Sundar sought the report and adjourned the hearing by a week. The court was hearing a public interest litigation petition filed by G. Jose Fredy Miller from Kalkulam in Kanniyakumari district.
The petitioner pointed out that Kalkulam located on the foothills of the Western Ghats was notified as an ecologically sensitive area.
The State government in 1990 had issued an order to constitute a separate authority for the development and conservation of the hill areas —‘Tamil Nadu Hill Area Conservation Authority’ (TNHACA).
Kalkulam taluk came under the list of hill taluks covered by the authority and mining and quarrying was prohibited without permission, the petitioner said.
In 2018, the Central government notified the eco-sensitive zones (ESZ) for Kanniyakumari Wildlife Sanctuary. Atleast 17 villages, including Kalkulm, came under the ESZ of the sanctuary. In order to carry out any mining or quarrying within 10 km of the national parks or wildlife sanctuaries, permission from the National Board for Wildlife was mandatory.
However, the petitioner pointed out that the Collector had granted licence to eight quarry operators for quarrying within 10 km of the Kanniyakumari Wildlife Sanctuary. None of the operators had obtained permission from either the National Board for Wildlife or the TNHACA. The quarry operators are using explosives beyond permissible limits to blast the rocks thereby affecting the sensitive area, he complained.
The quarrying activities have affected the villagers and agriculture has been made difficult as a result. Vital water sources are being destroyed. Even the complaints made to the officials concerned have not been responded to. He sought a direction to cancel the quarrying licence granted to the quarry operators and effective steps be taken against the violators.