Protest at Wayanad seeking action against officials for allegedly manipulating reports favouring quarry.
Credit: Special Arrangement.
Thiruvananthapuram: Protest is mounting at Wayanad in Kerala over allowing a quarry at Valathoor which is close to the recent landslide hit areas of Mundakkai and Chooralmala near Vythiri.
Local people allege that permissions were given to the quarry by manipulating records.
The aerial distance of the quarry from the landslide hit spots of Chooralmala-Mundakkai regions is hardly two kilometres only.
On Thursday a group of local people and environmentalists staged a protest in front of the Vythiri taluk office alleging that the taluk office made manipulations in a report by stating that no houses were present with in 50 metre from the quarry, whereas another earlier report had stated that there was house with in 50 metres.
Last year then district collector Renu Raj had issued an order stopping the functioning of the quarry citing that the quarry is situated at a place which was found by the District Disaster Management Authority as disaster prone area and banned quarrying activities. But the quarry owner O D Thomas approached the Kerala High court and court in March 2024 revoked the order cancelling the quarrying licence citing that the DDMA's decision marking the region as landslide prone did not have the approval of the State Disaster Management Authority.
An action council of local people against the quarry filed an appeal against the order. The HC subsequently directed that the functioning of the quarry should be stopped until further orders and hence it is now not functioning.
Action council chairman Rahim C M told DH that many government officials and political leadership were still taking steps in favour of the quarries despite the back to back calamities in the region.
"There are many quarries in the vicinity of Mundakai-Chooralmala areas. With the latest disaster that claimed hundreds of lives, the people are more aggrieved and determined to resist any further quarrying activities in the region," he said.
Various forums like the Wayanad Prakrithi Samrakshana Samithi (Wayanad nature protection forum) are also backing the stir against the quarry.
Wayanad district collector Meghashree D R and Vythiri tahsildar were not available for comments on the issue.