Balasore, March 10: Work has stopped in 35 quarrying units at Nilgiri and Soro that were operating without any environmental clearance, following an order of the National Green Tribunal.
The quarries were located within 10 kilometres of the Kuldiha Wildlife Sanctuary. Balasore divisional forest officer Harshbardhan Udgata said: "No quarrying activity can be done within the 10km-radius of a sanctuary."
About a month ago, the district administration had accorded permission to the quarry operators to lift materials - stone and morrum - after taking a deposit of Rs 1 lakh from each of them.
An environment activist, however, challenged the administration's order and had approached the tribunal, stating that the quarry operators did not obtain the environmental clearance. "After receiving the tribunal's order, we have asked the quarry owners to stop work ," said Nilgiri tehsildar Sarat Mahalik.
"We were given short-term permits for supplying stone and morrum for various government construction projects. On one hand, we lose money and on the other, the construction projects will suffer due to want of stone, boulder and morrum. We may have to move court for refund of our money," said a quarry operator.
Mahalik, however, said: "We will measure how much material they have already extracted out of the permitted limit. Accordingly, we may refund the amount if required."
Nilgiri sub-collector Dillip Parida said: "The rules for granting permission for quarrying is changing frequently. Earlier, quarries were auctioned. Then, quarries were being given out on lease. Now, quarrying is permitted only for a short period. We had stopped the quarrying altogether. But, we allowed it recently to meet the requirement of government construction projects. However, we have asked all the quarry operators to stop functioning following the tribunal order."
500 trees felled
The forest department today registered a forest law violation case against the state water resources department for illegally felling trees during a road repair work in Kendrapara. The forest department also seized an earth-digging machine. More than 500 large trees, such as eucalyptus and neem, were pulled down along Marsaghai-Jamboo Canal Road.
"We have filed a case under several sections of the Forest Act, 1972, against contractor Shiva Prasad Parida who felled around 500 trees between Danapur and Marsaghai without obtaining any permission from us. We have also issued a show cause notice to the executive engineer of the irrigation department," said Himanshu Sekhar Muduli, the forest range officer of Kendrapara.
With PTI inputs
