The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court banned in-stream mining and use of mechanised equipment for mining in 18 sand quarries near the Cauvery and Kollidam rivers in the districts of Karur, Tiruchy and Thanjavur, on Wednesday.
Considering an appeal filed by R Subramanian, President of Kollidam Pathukappu Nala Sangam, a bench comprising Justices V Ramasubramanian and V M Velumani, granted a four-week interim stay order on quarrying in the river using mechanised equipment.
The appeal was filed against the order issued by the Green Tribunal, upholding the PWD Executive Officer’s order to continue mining sand in Kollidam river for six more months.
The judges also said that the quarries can continue manual sand mining by employing sufficient number of people.
The judges observed, “If we permit mechanised mining to continue and if we ultimately take a decision against the respondents (quarries), the loss to ecology suffered during this period cannot be compensated”.
“Compensation in terms of money has no meaning in so far as environment is concerned”, the Judges said and adjourned the case to June 4.
The appellant pointed out that the State government had sanctioned four quarries in the month of March this year, and the guidelines laid out by the Central government’s Ministry of Environment should be followed in the all the quarries.
The petitioner, Subramanian, also mentioned the rule that no mechanised equipment should be used for mining in quarries with an area of less than 25 hectares.
