Madras High Court constitutes SIT to probe illegal sand mining near forest areas
The Hindu
The Madras High Court on Friday (January 10, 2025) constituted a Special Investigation Team (SIT), comprising IPS officers G. Nagajothi and G. Shanshank Sai, to probe into the massive illegal mining of soil, allegedly by brick kilns, occurring in close proximity to the reserve forest areas of Coimbatore district.
The Madras High Court on Friday (January 10, 2025) constituted a Special Investigation Team (SIT), comprising IPS officers G. Nagajothi and G. Shanshank Sai, to probe into the massive illegal mining of soil, allegedly by brick kilns, occurring in close proximity to the reserve forest areas of Coimbatore district.
A special Division Bench of Justices N. Sathish Kumar and D. Bharatha Chakravarthy passed the orders on a batch of petitions filed by activists S. Muralidharan, R. Karpagam, M. Siva, and others, through their counsel S.P. Chockalingam and M. Purushothaman, and called for a status report by February 27, 2025.
The Bench made it clear that the SIT shall take up the investigation in cases that had already been registered by the local police and also register fresh cases too, if there was a larger conspiracy angle to the illegal mining that had led to the creation of huge trenches near the forest areas.
The orders were passed after taking serious note of an exhaustive report filed by district judge G. Narayanan confirming the illegal mining activities and also after taking into consideration the suggestions made by amici curiae T. Mohan, Chevanan Mohan, Rahul Balaji, and M. Santhanaraman.
To prevent such illegal mining activities around the forest areas in the future, the Division Bench directed the State government to develop a system for automatic surveillance in consultation with the Institute of Remote Sensing at Anna University in Chennai.
The judges also ordered the initiation of remedial measures by closing the existing trenches with the assistance of The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI). Further, they ordered the transfer of all officials who had failed to prevent the large-scale illegal mining happening near the forest areas.
Mr. Narayanan had inspected as many as 15 brick kilns at Madhampatti, Alandurai, Kuppaipalayam, Thondamuthur, Thenkarai, Kalikanaickenpalayam, Mathipalayam, Vadivelampalayam, and Mugasimangalam villages in October 2024 on the basis of the directions issued by the Division Bench.
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