Telkoi: Reserve forests are gradually being stripped off their green cover due to rampant quarrying of murram and laterite stone by a well organised mafia in this block of Keonjhar district.
Locals alleged the mafia has been quarrying and supplying murram and laterite from various places under the very nose of the forest and revenue departments.
Expressing concern over the adverse impact of this illegal activity on the ecology, they stated that rampant quarrying is being carried out mainly in forested areas, leading to vanishing of green cover.
Besides, the revenue department is losing revenue worth crores of rupees every year owing to the illegal quarrying.
The locals noted that as a rule, permission is mandatory from the revenue department to quarry minor minerals. Besides, environment clearances are a must for the people taking lease of land for quarrying purpose, as per National Green Tribunal’s order. But all such norms have been thrown to the winds by the mafia, the locals pointed out.
Any kind of quarrying has been banned particularly in reserve forest areas, but this is happening on a large-scale in Sirigida, Bimala, Raisuan, Balabhadrapur, Purujida and Kaliahata reserve forests. According to reports, patches of woodland have been cleared off valuable trees to pave way for quarrying, which is causing a huge loss to the habitat of wildlife. “Due to deep quarries, we do not allow our domestic animals to graze in forests, as they might fall into the quarries,” said locals, adding some quarries resemble sprawling ponds in forests.
As a pointer to this fact, the tehsil officials had seized tractors laden with murram and laterite last week in the area while a penalty of `23,000 was imposed on the owners of the tractors, it was learnt. Tehsildar Pratibha Prusty said, “Officials of five revenue circles in the block have been asked to probe the allegations and take action accordingly.”
Ramesh Jena, a forest official, said action will be taken against the mafia for damaging reserve forests. PNN
