The District Administration on Friday began sealing the illegal brick kilns that were causing environmental damage in the Thadagam Valley.
Sources in the District Administration told The Hindu that officials from the Departments of Revenue, Geology and Mining, Forest, Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board and Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation were involved in the process.
The officials began sealing the illegal brick kilns operating in five village panchayats in Thadagam Valley -- Chinna Thadagam, Veerapandi, Nanjundapuram, Somaiyampalayam and Pannimadai. Around 50 police personnel were deployed for security. The Revenue Department officials sealed the illegal brick kilns and chambers following the Madras High Court order issued on February 10 and the subsequent direction from District Collector K. Rajamani.
With nearly 200 brick kilns and chambers operating illegally in the Thadagam Valley, it was proposed that around 20 of these located on the borders of forest areas would be sealed in the first phase on Friday.
Following this, the owners will be asked to close down the remaining brick kilns and chambers themselves, failing which the District Administration would continue with the sealing process, sources said.
Chief Justice of Madras High Court Sanjib Banerjee and Justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy had observed in their order that brick kilns have “mushroomed all over the State” and that the “general refrain is that the local authorities have turned a Nelson's eye to the illegal operations of brick kilns.”
“The official respondents must take immediate remedial measures to ensure that brick kilns function within the parameters set down and upon obtaining license remain confined to the areas demarcated. Burgeoning brick kilns that encroach into forest lands or elephant corridors should be proceeded against without undue delay,” the court order said.
Activist T.M.S. Rajendran, one of the petitioners in the High Court, urged the District Administration to seal all the illegal brick kilns and chambers in Thadagam Valley at the earliest. “If not, we will send a petition to the CBI to intervene in this issue,” he said.