Continuing delay on the part of the Revenue Department in acting on a directive issued by the Kerala High Court ten months ago has almost eclipsed Forest Department’s efforts to crack down on an illegal granite quarry causing environmental hazards at Vithinasery, near Nenmara, under Adanad Forest Reserve.
The quarry is functioning in a stretch of forestland assigned during the 1960s for exclusive cultivation of rubber. According to forest officials, the land was given on lease to private individuals to cultivate rubber, and operating an illegal quarry in it gives sufficient grounds for taking the land back.
Serious environmental problems
It was after the quarry has started causing serious environmental problems including depleting groundwater level and air pollution, the Forest Department started efforts to close it down and take the land back. When the quarry owner approached the High Court terming the move as discriminatory, the court issued an order in January directing the Revenue Department to decide on the nature and character of the land within two months.
According to environmental activist P.S. Panicker, the inaction of the Revenue Department has turned tacit support for the continuing operation of the quarry.
The district administration has to decide on the nature of the forestland which was assigned for rubber cultivation on flimsy grounds, he said.
When contacted by The Hindu , Nelliampathy Forest Range Officer B. Ranjith confirmed that the department has been trying to take the land back for the last several years. “We have already taken back 93 acres of land awarded earlier for planting rubber and preserving now as reserve forest. There were quarries in that stretch and the owners even tried to destroy the fencing and the survey stones. We are waiting for the Revenue Department’s report to take back the remaining land including the area where the operating quarry is located,” he said.
Dr. Panicker also demanded criminal prosecution of the people who took the land on lease and operating the quarry. Those who took the land on lease sold it as small pieces.
