Large-scale mining of red earth for brick kilns in Thadagam valley remains unchecked and deep pits have formed close to forest boundaries. Some of the pits close to the forest boundary near Mangarai are nearly 50 ft to 60 ft deep.
A visit by The Hindu to Mangarai also found that red earth has been dug from the base of a hill that comes well within the boundary of the forest. The mining was on at the base of the hill though the staff of the Forest Department were at the spot, reportedly to track a wild elephant.
According to residents from the locality, brick kilns and those supplying red earth to the units shifted excavation to Mangarai on a large scale due to shortage of the raw material at other places in Thadagam valley. It was basically depletion of resource owing to rampant excavation.
Though the concentration of brick kilns is mainly at Chinnathadagam and Periyathadagam, the availability of red earth has reduced in these places. Now, red earth is excavated in large levels at Mangarai and Veerapandi and transported in large trucks to brick kilns, a villager from Chinnathadagam said. Once major areas of wild elephant movement, the forest fringes of Mangarai, Veerapandi, Chinnathadagam, Periyathadagam and Thudiyalur in the Thadagam valley are less used by the elephants now owing to the deep pits left by excavation for red earth.
“Thadagam valley is a significant portion of the Attappadi – Pooluvapatti elephant corridor. Traditionally, elephants used to enter the valley through a route that branches off from the corridor between Panapalli and Mangarai at Kandivalli. The excavation for red earth has been causing disturbance to wild elephants for a very long time. In 2011, a wild elephant that was identified for radio collaring died after it fell into one of the pits,” said B. Ramakrishnan, Assistant Professor, Department of Zoology and Wildlife Biology at Government Arts College in Udhagamandalam. Mr. Ramakrishnan and Kalyanasundaram Ramkumar of Wildlife Trust of India studied the elephant corridor in 2007 and 2010.
When contacted, a senior official of the Department of Geology and Mining in Coimbatore, who did not want to be named, said that “there was no specific rule on the depth of mining”.
Quarrying shall be done for an optimum depth to be specified by the District Collector so that the land shall be restored to a state fit for cultivation, said the official, citing a rule from the Tamil Nadu Minor Minerals Concession Rules. The official also refused to disclose the number of brick kilns permitted to excavate red earth in Thadagam valley.
