Following a spate of accidents that has claimed several lives over the last three years, the government has finally woken up to the need to implement safety measures at abandoned quarries, but the reuse options recommended by an expert committee for spent quarries still remain on paper.
Earlier this week, District Collectors were directed to prepare a database of abandoned quarries and get the owners to put up perimeter fencing and warning boards to prevent accidents.
In the latest accident in August this year, four members of a family, including two kids, died when their car plunged into a stone quarry filled with water at Tripunithura in Ernakulam. Rescue workers and firemen say there is almost no chance of rescuing anyone who has fallen into a deep quarry with steep and slippery sides.
Safety measures
Experts say that safety measures at spent quarries have to be followed up with steps for ecological restoration of the sites.
It was in 2012 that an expert committee was constituted to study the possibility of reclaiming the spent quarries and mines that were blighting the landscape and had led to the loss of several lives due to drowning. The panel headed by K.P. Thrivikramji had proposed a series of steps to ensure the safety of abandoned quarries and restore and maintain the ecosystem with public participation.
“Now that the government has realised the need to improve safety measures at spent quarries, it should also take up the proposals for ecological restoration,” says Dr. Thrivikramji. The State Expert Appraisal Committee has made ecosystem restoration mandatory for quarries that are granted operational licence from 2012.
Last year, the Kerala State Biodiversity Board took up the eco-restoration of two abandoned quarries in Ernakulam and Thiruvananthapuram districts.
