CHENNAI: The Madras High Court on Wednesday warned of ordering a probe by the CBI if the state government authorities fail to act tough on the looting of the natural resources in the forest villages of Coimbatore district.
A special division bench of Justices N Sathish Kumar and D Bharatha Chakravarthy, while hearing a batch of petitions on unauthorised operation of brick kilns and illegal sand mining in certain villages in Perur taluk, also blamed the authorities concerned of colluding with the ‘sand mafia’.
“The report of the district judge shows sand excavated up to a depth of a staggering 16 feet adjoining the reserve forests; still there is no action,” the bench remarked.
Expressing anguish over the lack of action by authorities concerned, the bench remarked that it was like the ‘fence eating the crop’.
The petitions were filed by activists S Muralidharan and M Siva. The former flagged the issues of illegal activities affecting the elephant corridor due to the functioning of brick kilns while the latter raised illegal sand mining.
Advocate M Purushothaman, representing Siva, explained to the bench about the unscrupulous mining activities and attack on the petitioner by a group recently.
The bench granted time till December 12, 2024, as sought by special government pleader T Seenivasan, to file a comprehensive report on the action taken and proposal for checking future looting.
The court ordered the commissioner of Geology and Mines, superintendent of police and the district forest officer to be present in the court on the next date of hearing.
It recorded the findings of district judge and chairman of Lok Adalat, Coimbatore, G Narayanan who carried out an inspection, along with the district collector, district forest officer, the superintendent of police and other government department officers. They inspected 15 brick kilns and the surroundings to gauge the damage caused to the environment through illegal excavation of sand.
The report stated that up to 16 feet of earth was excavated in villages including Madhampatti, Boluvampatti, Vellimalaipattinam and Devarajapuram.