ON January 25, 2005, the Supreme Court observed that the Haryana government was in full complicity with persons involved in carrying out illegal mining in Aravallis. ‘‘Do not force us to put paramilitary forces in the area to enforce our orders banning mining,’’ the court said.Four months later, the illegal trade is far from over. The Aravallis in Gurgaon are still being blasted. The Gurgaon Police has registered more than 765 cases against violators since May 2002, but not a single accused has been convicted. More than 115 cases have been registered this year itself. The latest government action has come in the form of complaints registered by the Haryana State Pollution Control Board’s Regional Office in Gurgaon against 22 parties, most of them mine lease-holders, in a Special Environment Court at Faridabad.‘‘It is for the first time that anybody has been booked for illegal mining under the Environment Protection Act, 1986,’’ says HSPCB’s Regional Officer C.V Singh. ‘‘Most of these 22 parties are mine leaseholders who committed grave irregularities despite the ban on mining. We have also filed complaints against some truck drivers caught by the police,’’ he adds. If convicted, the accused could face imprisonment upto five years and fine.The apex court had first banned the mining of sand and silica within a five-kilometre radius from Delhi-Gurgaon border on May 6, 2002 following which it had ordered a blanket ban on all mining in the entire Aravalli hills from Haryana to Rajasthan in November, 2002. However, illegal mining continued with impunity in Gurgaon. The magnitude of the problem can be gauged from the fact that on October 29, 2004, a Group Commander of National Security Guard (NSG) Garrison at Manesar informed the Haryana Government that stone quarries were operating on the other side of the Aravalli hills which act as a natural boundary for the NSG campus on its eastern side. The complaint stated that ‘‘constant blasts at the quarries’’ were causing ‘‘crumbling of hills resulting in hampering the training in NSG and destroying the firing range’’.IT was only after the SC’s rap in January this year that the Gurgaon Administration formulated an Action Plan to curb the menace. It set up nakas, manned by Police and Mining Department officials in the crusher zones of Revasan, Raisina and Naurangpur which house around 130-odd stone crusher units. Excise and Taxation Department officials were deployed to conduct assessment of stocks of these crushers to ascertain if they were crushing legally mined stone. The Gurgaon Police cracked down on its own men too. Four Station House officers (SHOs), who had served at various key police stations in Gurgaon district were suspended for their alleged complicity with those indulging in illegal mining.For now, with a 2,579-strong police force at its disposal, Gurgaon Police will not find it easy to keep a vigil on Aravalli hills spread over an area of 57,435 acres across 198 villages.
