As the fear of landslips looms large over the hill district during the monsoon, close to 100 students of the Meenangadi government higher secondary school in Wayanad took upon themselves to create awareness on the need to preserve the ecologically fragile Arattupar rock formation at Kumbaleri.
The students on Tuesday organised a trekking to Arattupar, a rock formation that is allegedly under the grip of the mining lobby. They sowed hundreds of seeds of various tree species atop the rock. The programme was organised under the aegis of the National Service Scheme unit, various clubs of the school, and environmental enthusiasts in the area.
Three years ago, students of the school had built a symbolic fence around the rock formation, one of the six such rock formations in the area. They also demanded that the district administration adopt steps to conserve the remaining rocks in the region.
Later, the District Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) banned all mining activities on the rock formations saying the landscape of these rocks and their premises were mountainous in nature with steep slopes and rises. The terrain specifics rendered these ecologically fragile areas susceptible to landslips that could be catastrophic with the lower areas of the rocky region highly populated, the DDMA clarified in its ban order.
“However, a mining lobby had recently obtained an environmental clearance certificate from the State Environmental Impact Assessment Authority (SEIAA) to set up a granite quarry on the Arattupara rocks. They had purchased 4.5 acres of land from farmers adjacent to the rock, A.P. Anusya, a Plus Two student of the school, said.
The students also organised a door-to-door campaign to sensitise them on the role of the rock formations in determining the microclimate of the region as well as in the the rain patterns of the district.
The students also collected facts from the villagers about the ecological impacts of the region after nearly 22 granite quarries and eight sand-making units began operations in the area some decades ago.
The collected facts would be submitted to the district administration and SEIAA after compilation, M.K. Rajendran, NSS programme officer of the school, said.
