KOCHI | Dec 22, 2016: Environmentalists have for long been raising concerns over the unregulated quarrying in the Western Ghats region but to no avail. With the state government reluctant to adhere to norms suggested by expert panels and mandated by apex court judgements, the state has reached a phase where local residents fear having a quarry next to them.

"The best way to corner the corrupt officials and the illegal quarrying activity is to expose them. You can do that by using your smart phones. Take the picture with the GPRS location and upload it on to the Wikipedia. Use the technology to nail the violators," said Prof Madhav Gadgil, chairman, Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel (WGEEP). "I don't understand why the civil society does not use this tool for satellite imagery ." He said that the state governments are not going to discourage illegal activity because officials work in tandem with the quarry owners. "Now, even if they make Environment Impact Assessment mandatory , the report will be full of fraudulent details and we can't do anything about it."

"There is no doubt about the impact of unregulated quarrying as far as the surface water and groundwater is concerned. The impact on the forest cover and biodiversity is yet to be ascertained," Prof Gadgil said.

The state has no correct statistics on the number of quarries in the state. The revenue department, pollution control board and the local bodies give out a different figure.

Way back in 2010, an expert committee of the ministry of environment and forests (MoEF), which looked into the Environmental aspects of quarrying of minor minerals, had called for eco-friendly scientific mining practices to be adopted while issuing a mine lease. It asked the state government to make comprehensive mine plan for contiguous stretches of mineral deposits.

"Unfortunately, no report exists on how bad is the damage to environment. The state is not ready to consider eco-friendly mining plan," said Harish Vasudevan, environmental activist and legal expert.

He said that there is no denying that we need the mines. But it is high time that stricter regulation and monitoring is imposed because people are taking permit for 6 ft deep quarries and are mining depths of 20-30 ft.

Activists of All Kerala River Protection Council, which has been in the forefront of fighting the violations legally, say that quarry owners and officials are afraid of EIA.

"If the EIA becomes mandatory for getting mining licence, then there will be a public hearing and the residents of the area will raise concerns," said S Seetharaman, president of the council.

Also, the proposal to set up committee to monitor the EIA of the quarries is a farce, because the last time the state formed a 21-member panel, 14 were quarry owners and 7 were state officials.There were no environmentalists or any other experts from the general society, Seetharaman said.

(Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/)