Many mining quarries and stone crushing plants have been set up in villages around Hyderabad to extract stone and provide it to construction companies as raw material for the construction projects underway in Hyderabad. Village residents & dwellers affected by the pollution and dust emitted by these quarries/stone crushing units have now approached the NGT (National Green Tribunal) to ask the organization to take strict action against the stone mining activities as it is wreaking havoc on the health of the village residents and depleting the air quality.
An organic farmer from Amberpet, Abdullapurmet mandal – P. Indira Reddy and Akiti Nikhil Kumar from Chinna Ravirala in Abdullapurmet have filed a petition on this issue to the NGT. According to the petitioners, there has been a lot of illegal mining activity, massive stone & sand blasting and stone crushing carried out on revenue villages & private patta lands in Banda Ravirala, Chinna Ravirala, Deshmukhi village, Abdullapurmet and Bhoodan Pochampally mandal. The petitioners are residents of the areas affected and have urged the NGT to take strict action against these illegal miners at the earliest.
Petitioner Indira Reddy has said that 2 mining lease holders have encroached into private patta lands and have completed destroyed 7 acres of land due to mining & stone blasting activities. The petitioner Indira Reddy runs a meditation centre and her husband has constructed a Lord Shiva temple on 15 acres of fertile agricultural land in Saddupalli, Abdullapurmet. According to the petitioners, at present there are 6 stone crushing units, 11 hot mix plants and 8 mining quarries in the vicinity of Abdullapurmet.
The second petitioner Nikhil Reddy says his agriculture land has been surrounded on all sides by 4 stone crushing units & 6 mining quarries. These activities have been rampant over the last 15 years and is exceeding tolerable limits now. Nikhil Reddy adds that the dust, air pollution, noise pollution & vibrations caused by these stone mining activities is causing great disturbance to the local residents of Chinna Ravirala, Banda Ravirala, Taramtipet, Guvvaleti, Saddupalli & Deshmukhi villages.
While the main issue for the locals has been the loss of fertile agricultural land, the locals have been developing chronic throat infections, severe cough & breathing difficulties due to the pollution caused by mining, stone crushing, tar & RCC mixing plants. The petitioners had already submitted several complaints to the Telangana State Pollution Control Board and the District Collectors of Rangareddy & Yadadri Bhuvanagiri districts and the state mining, revenue departments. So far none of the govt. bodies & offiicials have taken any action and thus, the petitioners have sought to move the NGT to force the resolution of issue.