Protest is brewing against a move to set up a granite quarry inside a private coffee plantation at Padivayal, near Kadachikunnu, in Muppainad grama panchayat in the district.
The owners of the estate had acquired the quarry licence by misleading the Kerala High Court with the support of some government officials, alleges N. Badusha, president of the Wayanad Prakruthi Samrakshana Samiti.
The area is a biodiversity hotspot in the Western Ghats and the zonalisation map of the District Disaster Management Authority identified the area as highly susceptible to landslip, he says.
The owners are yet to obtain permission from the State Revenue Land Board to convert the land for setting up a granite mining unit, says Samiti secretary Thomas Ambalavayal.
The plantation is adjacent to Puthumala where 18 people were killed in a landslip last year and Nellimala and Kanthanpara where three persons each lost their lives in landslips in 2009, he says.
Moreover, the proposed mining site is only 100 m away from a vested forest under the South Wayanad Forest Division and less than 100 m off a government primary health centre and an Anganwadi.
They allege that the State Environment Impact Assessment Authority had granted permit for the mining unit without consulting the District Environment Impact Assessment Authority.
Around 100 families, including tribespeople, live in the area and they fear that the quarry unit might upset their life. Many rivulets of the Chaliyar originate from the hill and hundreds of villagers in the area fear that their drinking water source will be destroyed once mining is started there, says A. Hariharan, former grama panchayat vice president.
They warn the authorities that if the grama panchayat does not cancel the licence given to set up the quarry, the people will launch an indefinite agitation.