Madras High Court constitutes SIT to probe illegal sand mining near reserve forests

The Madras High Court on Friday constituted a Special Investigation Team (SIT) comprising two IPS officers to probe into incidents of illegal mining that have been taking been taking place for years in areas close to the reserve forests in Coimbatore district of Tamil Nadu..A specially constituted bench of Justices N Satish Kumar and Bharatha Chakravarthy directed the SIT to begin its investigation into the cases already registered by the local police. It also urged it to register fresh cases if it came across a larger conspiracy that had resulted in the creation of massive trenches near the forest areas, putting wild animals in danger.The Bench also took note of the submissions made by forest authorities and the pictures submitted by a Court-appointed monitoring team that revealed that miners had constructed illegal roads and bridges. The miners had also filled up the trenches that the forest department had built to prevent human-animal conflict in the elephant corridor.The Court accordingly directed the State and district authorities to “obliterate” illegal bridges and roads and restore all water bodies in the area to their original form..“The inspecting authority was shocked to see a wide range of red sand and gravel rampantly removed in a continuous extent just 500 meters away from the Reserve Forest boundary. The whole place looks larger than a football ground,” the High Court said. “The illegal bridges that are built and the illegal roads which are laid shall be forthwith obliterated. The water bodies to be restored to its original position. The various trenches and pits shall be appropriately levelled so as to enable the elephants and wild animals to manoeuvre and cross,” it added.The Court also directed the State mining department to continue with its ongoing independent probe and fix accountability, impose fines etc each time it identified a lapse on the part of the authorities.It directed the SIT to file a status report by February 27 this year..The Court issued the directions while hearing a batch of petitions filed by activists S Muralidharan and R Karpagam. The initial prayer was to secure the elephant corridors in Coimbatore Forest Division, which had been destroyed by illegal earth mining through setting up of brick kilns etc.In an earlier order, the Court had ordered an inspection of the areas to be conducted by Narayanan, District Judge and Chairman of the Permanent Lok Adalat, Coimbatore. The judge was tasked with inspecting 14 illegal direct kiln units which were said to be operating even after the Court's order calling for a halt on such activities.The report submitted to the Court by Narayanan revealed the fraud played not only by the brick kiln owners, but also officials. The Court also lamented the lack of action taken by police after filing cases in the matter."Till today, not even in one case, the Police is able to tell us that the earth is mined by so and so, is supplied in a particular place for the particular purpose. Therefore, absolutely, no investigation whatsoever has been done so far. The investigation, upto the stage, whatever has been shown, is nothing but an eye wash...There is grave suspicion about the involvement of these Station House Officers as also the higher officials in the entire episode.".S Muralidharan appeared as a party-in-person.Additional Advocate General J Ravindran, Special Government Pleader (Forest) Dr T Seenivasan, and Advocates V Gunasekar, V Chandrasekaran, SP Chockalingam, L Jaivenkatesh and Richardson Wilson appeared for the State authorities.Senior Advocate N Muralikumaran and Advocates L Palanimuthu and M Purushothaman appeared for other respondents.Senior Advocate T Mohan and Advocates C Mohan and M Santhanaraman are the amici curiae appointed in the matter..[Read Order]