Kerala: Green activists cry foul over mining concessions

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Environmental activists are shocked at the reasons the state government had trotted out to amend Kerala Minor Mineral Concession Rules to favour quarry owners. The Cabinet had the other day restored the minimum permissible distance limit for quarrying to 50 metres from roads, canals, rivers, and residential buildings. The UDF government had made it 100 metres. One of the reasons cited by industries minister A. C. Moideen for the amendment was that the rules issued by the Central government in 2016 and those followed by several other States prescribed only 50 metres.

“This is a lie,” said lawyer and environmental activist Harish Vasudevan. “Take the minor mineral concessions rules of neighbouring states like Karnataka or Tamil Nadu. In the case of Karnataka, a quarry that uses explosive to blast rocks will have to keep a minimum distance of 200 metres from residential areas. For Tamil Nadu, it is 300 metres. For Haryana, too, it is 300 metres,” he said. Mr Vasudevan said it was commonsense that when a rock is blasted using explosives, the debris will fly at least 150 metres.

“There are innumerable cases pending in the courts filed by private individuals whose houses had been damaged by the rock debris from exploding quarries,” Mr Vasudevan said. According to Tony Thomas of One Earth One Life, the LDF seems more concerned about the profits of quarry owners than the lives of its people. “When a quarry is blasted, the area within a 150 metre radius will reverberate. This is one reason why the UDF government was forced to make the distance at least 100 metres,” Mr Thomas said. It was in an affidavit filed before the High Court in 2011 by the UDF government that the distance was revised from 50 to 100 metres.

The affidavit was filed after the Court observed, during the tenure of the last LDF government, that the state’s mining rules were damaging the environment. And during the last six years, the High Court had repeatedly observed that the rules were too weak. The other reason held up by Moideen for the amendment was that the UDF’s move had caused over 2000 quarries in the state to shut shop, leading to scarcity of construction materials and a consequent rise in prices. Intriguingly, the Mining and Geology Directorate had never published such a list. What’s more, official figures from 2016 show that licenses were issued only to 2308 quarries. Therefore, if 2000 quarries were closed down, it would have meant that there was virtually no quarrying activity in the state for the last six years.