The National Green Tribunal’s Central
Zone Bench in Bhopal has
banned all mining activities in 84 stone and marble quarries located inside and
within one kilometre radius of the Sariska Tiger Reserve and adjoining Jamua
Ramgarh Sanctuary in Rajasthan.
The order passed this week followed written
submissions by the assistant conservator of forests of Tehla that about 61
quarries were operating inside the Sariska reserve and that 23 quarries were
operating in the buffer zone of the reserve and the adjoining Jamua Ramgarh
Sanctuary.
The Bench directed the Rajasthan government to take
steps to ensure that “no mining activity is carried out in 61 plus 23 mining
leases and the same shall remain discontinued till further order”. The
two-member Bench of Justice Dalip Singh and expert P S Rao also allowed the
mining department to carry out a survey to verify the location of the quarries.
In 2005, a task force was appointed by the state
government to check illegal quarrying. Before that environmental activist
Rajendra Singh of Tarun Bharat Sangh, an NGO based in Alwar district, had filed
a public interest petition in the Supreme Court in 1991. The apex court then
directed the state government to stop issuing mining licences. However, when
stone quarry owners approached the Supreme Court again, the court ruled that
mining can take place one kilometre from the park.
When fresh licences were granted in the reserve in
2010, Ram Swaroop Yadav, an
environmental activist, petitioned the National Green Tribunal. The forest
department which undertook a survey on
the direction of the green tribunal, found illegal mines operating inside the
park. In all, there are about nine tigers living inside the tiger reserve.
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