Jajpur: The villagers near Dankari Hill in Dharmasala tehsil of Jajpur district stopped some stone traders who were trying to extract black stones from the hill using a wagon blasting machine Wednesday.
The villagers who have been at the receiving end of the illegal stone quarrying and its pollution saw the traders trying to conduct wagon blasting and resisted. This led to a brawl between the two groups, but finally the villagers overpowered the stone traders and seized their blasting machine.
The villagers called the Jenapur police and Dharmasala tehsildar to the spot and handed over the wagon blasting equipment, even though they arrived six hours after the incident was reported.
The villagers’ daring act of seizing the wagon drilling machine earned applause from the public. However, the episode exposed the helplessness of the district administration in controlling illegal stone quarrying on the hill.
The attempt to illegally extract black stones from the Dankari Hill was made while a case regarding that is sub-judice at the National Green Tribunal (NGT) and the Supreme Court.
The NGT had blamed the state government for the environmental pollution caused by the stone mining on the hill, and had asked the government to deposit Rs 25 crore as interim penalty.
A bench of Justices AK Goyal, SP Wangdi, Ramakrishnan and Nagin Nanda heard the case (604/2018) and gave the order, January 4, 2019.
According to the case diary, the traders illegally extracted black stones worth crores of rupees from the hill between 2002 and 2017 without environmental clearance.
The NGT asked the state government to collect penalty from the officials concerned and illegal stone traders, and use it for environment protection and to help quarry labourers and local residents.
The NGT also asked the state government to set up a committee comprising representatives of the CPCB (Central Pollution Control Board), the Dhanbad- based Indian School of Mines, the Dehradun-based Forest Research Institute and the State Environment Impact Assessment Authority to frame a policy on spending the penalty money.
The district administration and the stone traders moved the Supreme Court against the NGT order. Of the 16 quarries on Dankari Hill, the owners of quarry numbers 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 11 were carrying out illegal quarrying without approval of the SPCB and the district administration.
The matter came up before the NGT after a case was filed by social activist Sarbeshwar Behura.
After the NGT order, the district administration carried out a joint raid with the help of the police, forest, revenue and mines department and the State Pollution Control Board (SPCB) on the hill, and imposed prohibitory orders under Section 144. The team also sealed six quarries.
Dankari Hill spreads over both Jajpur and Dhenkanal districts. Earlier, the Dhenkanal and Jajpur district administrations had tried to stop illegal stone quarrying but in vain.
Dharmasala tehsil officials had even raided many places on the National Highway and seized 23 stone laden vehicles Monday.
However, both the district administrations failed to close down the illegal stone quarries on the hill as they are controlled by some influential traders.
The unscrupulous traders tried to exploit the inaction of both the district administrations and tried to conduct wagon blasting Wednesday.
Jenapur IIC Susant Kumar Das said quarry owner Ranjan Kumar Jena was preparing to extract stones as he had a secured a stay order on the NGT ruling. The IIC assured to take action after conducting a probe.
PNN