Khaira: Days after the National Green Tribunal (NGT) issued a directive for halting illegal stone mining at Sarisua hill under Khaira tehsil in Balasore, forest conservators Sandeep Tripathy and Harishankar Upadhayay along with Collector K Sudarshan Chakraborty visited several stone mines in the area Wednesday.
Sources said that they inspected 11 mines in Kapilajhari village.
While there are 97 stone mines in the area, 50 of them have been auctioned while 46 stone mines are being operated illegally, sources added. The forest conservators expressed their unhappiness over the operation of illegal mines.
Baripada DFO Swayang Malick, Balasore DFO Biswaraj Panda, Khaira tehsildar Pradip Kumar Sahu and Kuladiha ranger Bijay Mohapatra were also present during the visit.
Notably, the Collector and SP of Balasore accompanied by tehsildar Pradip Kumar Sahu, additional tehsildar Bibhas Ranjan Panigrahi and Ranger Babita Soren had recently visited these mines before the NGT order. They were shocked to find excavators and blasting machines still in use in some mines. Vehicles were operating as usual on a road near Sarisua hill. They came to know that some stone mafia has been using the hilly road to transport their illegally mined stones.
It may be noted here that Khaira tehsildar Pradip Kumar Sahu carried out a major crackdown on illegal stone mining October 5 and imposed prohibitory orders under Section 144 on 10 stone mines at Sarisua hill.
