KANNUR: Sending a strong signal to the quarry mafia in the district that the raids would continue, the district administration on Tuesday directed the seizure of 13 vehicles operating on the premises of Narikkottumala, near Panur. The vehicles were seized by a team led by RDO P.V. Gangadharan, Thalassery tahsildar P.P. Sathyanathan and additional tahsildar Haridasan Valeri as directed by district collector Mir Mohammed Ali. The seized vehicles were taken to Kolavallur police station. Nearly 50 granite quarries are functioning illegally in the hills including Narikkottumala and Vazha mala in Thrippangott panchayat, said the tahsildar.
“Three days before the seizure, the Geology department had inspected the area and served a quick memo to stop the mining in an area of roughly 2,800 acres of government and private land. However, the owners did not stop the mining and the sudden move was made by the administration,” said Mr Sathyanathan. He confirmed that the seizure was the biggest in recent history and the raids would continue. The survey of the land had not been completed in order to identify the actual area of the government land, said the RDO. Though environmental activists and Janakeeya Vedi, Kannur claim that the land is environmentally fragile, a report is yet to come from the government. These two issues would be the next step towards the prevention of further mining in the area.
Janakeeya Vedi district secretary T. Maneesh alleged that local leaders of all the political parties were supporting mining and they could influence the local police and prevent them from investigating. “Repeated requests by the locals and activists were neglected by the police even after the area suffered an acute shortage of water due to these illegal mining at quarries,” said Mr Maneesh. The quarries used to start functioning from 4am and continue till 10am or 11am, before government offices started functioning, so that they could avoid regular inspections. However, the inspection on Tuesday was secretive in nature and the team arrived in three groups. One arrived through Cheruvancheri, another through Poyiloor and the third through Pathikkal. The seized vehicles included 10 tipper lorries and one earthmover.
