Madurai: The Madurai bench of the Madras High court on Monday appointed an expert committee to assess the illegal sand quarrying in Cauvery and Coleroon rivers that flow through Tiruchy, Thanjavur and Karur districts in Tamil Nadu.
While directing the expert committee comprising advocates R Alagumani and B Saravanan and professor Ravichandran, head, department of Plant Science, Manomaniam Sundaranar University, Tirunelveli, to submit the assessment report on September 11, the court extended its interim order staying the sand quarrying operations in the river Cauvery between Karur (Mayanur) and Tiruchy until September 12.
The division bench comprising Justices K K Sasidharan and G R Swaminathan passed this order while hearing a batch of petitions seeking to direct the government to ban the illegal quarrying activities in the two rivers.
Senior counsel M Ajmal Khan, who appeared for the petitioner A Sudalaikannu, president of Cauveri Neervala Athara Pathukappu Sangam, informed the court that the permissible limit of mining depth in all rivers was only 1 m (3.3 feet), but the Public Works Department, River Conservation Division, Tiruchy, was excavating more than 6 m (20 feet) from the present bed level and artificially created thousands of mine pits within the river.
There were ten mining leases that were under operation in the river Cauvery and nine under operation in the river Coleroon in the three districts. While the environment clearances were granted to these sites under B2 mining project- which means the area of extent of each mining lease is maximum 25 hectares - the authorities have allowed illegal mining in more than thousands of hectares in the two rivers, he contended.
To ensure scientific sand quarrying in the rivers, this court in its earlier order passed on 2010 directed the State government to constitute state-level monitoring committee under a chairmanship of retired high court judge, but the committee was defunct after Justice K Padmanaban resigned from chairmanship, said the senior counsel. He requested the court to close all the mining activity in the River Cauvery and Coleroon for ten years for natural replenishment of sand to resume the river environment.
Though the public prosecutor who appeared for the government requested the court to vacate the stay order stating that PWD has obtained environmental clearance from State Environment Assessment Authority for sand quarries in Karur and Tiruchy, the judges said they would decide on this matter after the expert committee submits report.
