Tiruppur farmer on hunger strike opposing quarry

TIRUPPUR: A section of farmers alleged that stone quarries are destroying the groundwater table in Palladam. To highlight the issue, Vijaya Kumar, a farmer from Ichipatti has been staging a hunger strike in front of his house for the past three days.

As per the revenue records, more than 74 stone quarries are in Palladam of which 37 quarries are licensed and are in operation currently. P Vijayakumar (40) said, “I lost more than 40 coconut trees in my farmland due to the depletion in groundwater. My 60-feet well has dried up.

This is due to the giant stone quarry which is located 200 metres away from my farmland. Despite several petitions to officials, the stone quarry is operating here for more than 10 years.’ Sathish Kumar, another farmer alleged that the quarry owners are using political power to get their works done.

Tamil Nadu Environment Safety Movement - coordinator RS Mugilan said, “Most of the farm wells and village wells are wide and square in size, with a depth of 60-120 feet. But, quarries are given license to quarry stone for more than 150 feet.

The size of the quarry is very huge and greatly impacts the geology of the landscape. But the officials aren’t concerned. Sometimes, quarry owners will even submit fake statements from Environment Impact Assessment Plan.Geologist Dr S Venkateswaran said,

‘All kinds of mines and quarrying activities affects the groundwater level in any kind of soil.” A Geology and Mining department official said, “Our team approves quarries only after studying all technical reports submitted by the licensee. But, we will conduct a field study in this particular case after informing our higher officials in Chennai.”