Peringappara Quarry Operation: Looming Threat To Residents In Thachamparamba
Peringappara, Malappuram: With nine quarries operating within a 500-metres area, with several more awaiting clearance to start operation, the residents of Thachamparamba are being threatened by potential natural calamities and public health concerns.
Located near the Peringappara hills of the Western Ghats at Urangattiri Village in Malappuram, Thachamparamba ward is an exquisite rural beauty which has been facing the existential threats of erosion of natural prosperity due to the increasing number of quarry activities.
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Thachamparamba natives witnessed the first glimpses of the crusher 25 years back when a quarry started to operate in the region. As the years passed, new quarries began mining operations, fueling the worries of the locals
According to Badrudheen Thachanna, a resident of Thachamparamba, quarry operators are violating several legal regulations and limits though they have been running with licences. The metal-laden trucks legally need eight meters of road space to operate safely, but many roads are smaller than that. For the explosives, they cross the one-time limit, blasting 50 explosives at a time with an accumulative total of 180 explosives across three quarries in a row.
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The regulations regarding dust control are also being ignored, including wetting of the road and the load and not covering the load with a tarpaulin. “These actions are manners of quarry mafias”, insists Badrudheen.
The villagers are now forced to give a petition to the Panchayath Council of Urangattiri to convene a public gram sabha. In 2015, a gram sabha event was held in the village, subsequently restricting new quarry activities.
During the 2018 floods, the documents regarding the resolutions taken in the Public Grama Sabha were damaged which were inside the village office. C T Nazeer, a local resident and a school teacher who is in the forefront of the protest, says they need the documents to approach the court against fresh initiatives by the quarry management.
“If we have to approach the court regarding the issue, we need documents. That’s why we want another gram sabha,” says Nazeer, noting that the villagers are planning for the second one.
Residents says that the quarry operation has already troubled the inhabitants of the region. According to Nazeer, in Thachamparamba, more than 5000 people are struggling with health issues, including asthma, due to a dusty environment. An average of two persons per household currently have asthma, and among whom more than 100 are children.
A Picture From Peringappara Quarry
Recently, they are widely facing another physical challenge – lack of ear balance which does not allow the daily wage laborers to go for work, disrupting the livelihood of the sole providers of many families. Apart from these diseases, the explosives of quarries cause cracks in houses. “Not even a single home remains without cracks”, Nazeer notes.
The residents of Thachamparamba are no longer calling for mere restrictions on new quarry operation, but they are demanding a complete shutdown of all existing units. Their concerns have intensified in the wake of recent landslides in neighboring Wayanad.
The villagers fear potential natural calamities if quarrying continues Unabated in this ecologically sensitive area. C.T. Nazeer and Badrudheen, along with many other community leaders, are advocating for the Urangattiri Panchayat Council to pass a formal resolution to prohibit all quarry activities, especially given the region’s environmental vulnerability and the growing public health crisis.
“These grounds can definitely convince the courts if we are forced to seek legal recourse,” Nazeer points out, lamenting that otherwise, only a disaster would be able to put an end to these quarries.
(This Story Is Part Of Timeline Internship Project)
