Post News Network
Telkoi, Jan 2: Illegal quarrying has always been the bane of mineral-rich Keonjhar district. Now, laterite stone is being illegally quarried in many reserve forests under Telkoi block on a large scale, but forest department officials have failed to take action against the stone mafia to stop the menace.
Truckloads of stones are being transported out of these forests while huge pits on large tracts have been dug out in reserve forests of Bimala, Raisuan, Purujoda and Kaliahata panchayats.
Illegal stone quarrying has also caused large-scale clearing of thick forests.
Bimala sarpanch Kuna Nayak, Purujuda sarpanch Kamala Munda, Raisuan sarpanch Bimbadhar Nayak along with Kaliahata sarpanch and over a hundred people had recently drawn the attention of district collector N Tirumala Nayak towards the illegal activity.
Huge quantity of laterite stones are being hewed out of the Balang reserve forest near Bimla panchayat, Ranibeda Kuladore reserve forest in Raisuan panchayat, several reserve forests in Purujoda and Kaliahata panchayats, the locals said.
Environmentalists and social activists voiced their concern over the issue, stating that rampant stone quarrying has resulted in depletion of forests. Loss of green cover and habitats has posed a serious existential threat to wild fauna.
”Earlier, we used to take our domestic animals to graze in the forest, but now the huge pits have made grazing impossible. Animals will fall to death if they are set free,” the villagers said.
The villagers say the forest department and tehsil officials are squarely to blame for such growing illegal stone hewing in the reserve forest. The government also suffers huge revenue loss due to rampant stone quarrying.
When contacted, tehsildar Akshay Kumar Mallick said, “There is no provision to lease the areas for stone quarrying. We have permitted people to hew stones in their own land and that too for making their own Indira Awas Yojana houses.”
Ranger Ramesh Chandra Jena said, “Officials of Bimala forest beat and Kaliahata forest beat have been asked to probe the matter. Stern action will be taken against the mafia if stone quarrying happens in reserve forests.”
