The Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation Limited (Tangedco) is in the process of verifying with the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board the actual number of illegal brick kiln units operating in elephant corridors in Coimbatore district. The move is aimed at sorting out variation in the estimates for the purpose of implementing the order of the Madras High Court to snap connections to the production units that have been functioning without proper authorisation.
While the High Court has directed the Tangedco to disconnect power supply to 118 units operating illegally based on the data furnished by the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board, the corporation has submitted that there are only 44 units that had obtained service connection for industrial purposes.
The power connection to 32 out of these were disconnected by Tangedco on Thursday, and the task to extend the measure to the rest of the units was continuing, official sources said.
According to a senior official of Pollution Control Board, the onus was on Tangedco to rule out the possibility of the illegal brick kilns functioning by diverting domestic connections.
The order to seal the illegal brick kilns was issued by the Coimbatore Collector in June 2021, which was issued in the wake of two batches of writ petitions filed in the Madras High Court during 2019.
One sought a directive to the Principal Chief Conservator of Forests and Chief Wildlife Warden of the Forest Department to identify and secure the elephant corridors in Coimbatore Forest Division with the respondents (District Collector, Tahsildar of Coimbatore North, District Environmental Engineer of Coimbatore North, and the Assistant Director of Geology and Mining) to close all the illegal brick kilns operating in Tadagam valley.
Another petition sought a direction to the respondents to take immediate action to close down the illegal brick kilns being operated in some of the villages: Chinna Thadagam, Nanjundapuram, Veerapandi, Somayampalayam and Pannimadai.
The Coimbatore District Irulasamuga Nala Sangam has contended that the soil in which the brick kilns were functioning was a reservoir collecting water from many streams originating in the surrounding hills and draining in the valley from where water was carried to Singanallur and Chinnavedampatty lakes and the Noyyal river.
The Sangam has emphasised on curtailment of the functioning of the brick kilns by submitting that the eco-system and biodiversity of the land was under imminent threat and also resulted in human-animal conflict.
The position taken by the brick kilns is that though they had valid licence to operate only till 2011 due to stoppage of the annual renewal of licences, they had been paying fee running to several lakhs of rupees to the authorities to run their units.
