Miners And Quarry Lobby Eat Into Green Zones While 14 forest divisions in the state have lost 1,00,078 acres of forest land, thanks to private individuals making systematic encroachments on forests bordering farmlands and residential localities ­ the department has failed to take any action till date. The quantum of this forest scam would be at least three times the current figures as the forest department had conveniently withheld information from sensitive districts like Idukki, Kollam and Thiruvananthapuram falling in 20 other divisions. Environmentalists say that there has been a change in the pattern of forest land encroachment in the last decade or so which has destroyed vast swathes of green zones along the Western Ghats. “While earlier the forest land was encroached upon by settlers and plantation companies, today it is done by miners and quarry lobby ,“ says Dr Kunhikrishnan, environmentalist and former associate professor, department of zoology , University College, Thiruvananthapuram. He says the grasslands and Shola forests are exploited by miners and once they encroach on the land they apply for quarrying permits. “They then extend their activities to the neighbouring forest areas. Forest department officials are helpless as the miners have local political support and operate like a mafia. The recent case where a forest department team was attacked in Kannur when it went to do a survey of forest is a classic example of the miners' muscle power,“ he says. The public expenditure review committee report ­ based on figures provided by the mining and geology department ­ too says that only 160 crushers in the state come under the tax net, leaving out around 1,500 illegal granite-crushing units. “Measures need to be taken to identi fy unregistered quarries and slap fines on them with retrospective effect. The mining and geology department accounts for a meagre 1.60% of the total non-tax revenue of the state,“ says Dr Mary George, member of the public review expenditure committee. The extent of this problem can be gauged by the fact that the state-appointed expert committee received maximum number of complaints against Kasturirangan committee report from Idukki (3,131) which has the highest number of illegal quarries followed by Kottayam (1,856) and Kozhikode (1,437) respectively. “Coincidently , the maximum number of illegal quarries is operating in these three districts and there was huge pressure from local political representatives and miners to declassify many villages in these areas from eco-sensitive areas (ESAs). The religious institutions receive ample financial support from the powerful quarry lobby ,“ says Harish Vasudevan, secretary, One Earth, One Life. Poet Sugatha Kumari, who was in the forefront of Silent Valley agitation, says there is nexus between religious denominations and political leaders who remain silent on the issue of forest land encroachments as they own benami quarries here. “Ironically, this massive encroachment took place even as the state government had been finding it difficult to identify land to rehabilitate landless tribals in Attapadi, where 82 malnutrition deaths occurred in the last three years. The government had not been able to provide land to Attapadi tribals who lost 10,796 acres to settlers,” says P Raju, a social activist. Dr Kunhikrishnan says the state should urgently conduct a physical survey of forest land to demarcate the boundaries of forest and buffer zones before more areas are lost to the quarry lobby.