News: 13 years after SC ban, govt panel to survey Aravalis for illegal mining-07-06-2022
GURUGRAM: Over the next 15 days, an intensive screening will be carried out in the Aravalis in Gurugram , Faridabad and Nuh for evidence of illegal mining in the eco-sensitive hill ranges, which were quarried relentlessly for decades for sand and stones used in construction before the Supreme Court ordered a blanket ban on it in 2009
Mining has, however, continued at certain spots in the ranges despite the ban. Between April 2020 and March 2021, the government seized 385 vehicles being used for illegal mining and recovered Rs 8.3 crore from gangs in Gurugram and Nuh.
A petition filed recently at the National Green Tribunal (NGT) by the Aravalli Bachao Citizens Movement alleged mining was rampant in at least 16 locations in the Aravalis.
Large tracts of the hills, the petition said, had been mined and some parts even flattened.
On May 23, while hearing this petition, the NGT directed the Haryana State Pollution Control Board (HSPCB) and the administrations of Gurugram , Faridabad and Nuh to form a joint committee and carry out inspections in the Aravalis till June 20.
The committee will have to submit its report in three months. “We are acting on the order,” HSPCB member secretary S Narayana told TOI.
“With the hills being destroyed like this, more gaps are being created in the Aravalis. The Thar desert, technically, is moving closer to the NCR and the wildlife here is losing its habitat. Many of the 16 locations where mining is being carried out are covered by the Punjab Land Preservation Act, which prohibits cutting of trees, clearing of land and mining of stones in the Haryana Aravalis,” said Neelam Ahluwalia of the Aravalli Bachao movement.
The activist asserted that mining activity, left unchecked, would cause irreversible damage to the region.
“We must not forget, the Aravalis are the lungs of NCR. Over several months, members of our group trudged 5-10km daily in different parts of the Aravalis. They took photogra-phs and made videos of the illegal stone and sand mining going on there and the destruction caused by it. With the use of GIS technology and satellite images, topo-sheets of the areas were prepared for 2021 and 2022. The images, when compared, clearly show that illegal mining is rampant in these areas des-pite the court ban. The government authorities haven’t done much either,” said Jyoti Raghavan of the Aravali group.
The disastrous impact of mining on the Aravalis has been seen in neighbouring Rajasthan, where 31 out of 128 hills in the Aravali region disappeared over a period of 50 years due to quarrying, according to findings of a Supreme Court-appointed central empowered committee in 2018.
Haryana has a total of 119 mines, of which 61 are lying vacant and 49 are operational at present.
Most of the active mines are in Yamunanagar, Charkhi Dadri, Mahendergarh and Bhiwani.
In Gurugram , Faridabad and Nuh, mining stopped officially after the 2009 order of the Supreme Court.
