ISLAMABAD: Since it has not granted environmental approval for mining or stone crushing in the area, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Punjab argued before the Supreme Court on Wednesday that the mining, crushing and stone blasting activities being carried out on the Margalla Hills are illegal

In a report submitted before the Supreme Court through Additional Advocate General Punjab Razzaq A. Mirza, EPA Punjab said that its district officer (Environment) Rawalpindi has reported that 53 stone crushing units were operating on the Margalla Hills against which 53 references have been initiated.

The court’s attention was drawn towards the continued quarrying and cutting down of trees on the Margalla Hills after a discussion on the matter was aired on television on May 19 following which a three-member Supreme Court bench headed by Chief Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali took up the case.

Court told all 53 stone-crushing units are being proceeded against

During the TV programme, continued quarrying had been highlighted and it was revealed that the activity was carried out by influential mafia and well as cement factories.

The programme had included a report in which the reporter had visited Lora in Abbottabad and had discovered the unabated crushing of the hilly areas. The reporter said that the activity had been continuing for 35 years without any check and had damaged the greenery of the hills.

During the proceedings on Wednesday, a representative of a stone crushers association also requested the court to become party in the matter after which the chief justice observed the court wanted to hear the stone crushers to learn under which authority the hills were being blasted with explosives.

The forest cover on Margalla Hills is 17,111 acres and is surrounded by Haripur, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Taxila and Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT).

After the creation of the Islamabad, the Capital Development Authority (CDA) approached the then provincial government of West Pakistan for the transfer of management of these reserve forests. Hence, of the 17,111 acres of forest, 12,511 was leased out to CDA in 1961 of which 11,870 acres comprise the Margalla Reserve Forest and the Banigala Reserve Forest constitute the remaining 641 acres.

An agreement in this regard was signed between the secretary agriculture, West Pakistan and Horticulture Directorate CDA in 1966. The remaining 4,600 acres are under the control of the Punjab Forest Department.

In its report, EPA Punjab explained that it has initiated legal action against illegal mining and rock crushing on Margalla Hills, Taxila and Rawalpindi. The department has also communicated with the Mines and Minerals Department Punjab about the applicable provisions of the Punjab Environment Protection Act 1997 and other regulations.

In a separate report, the Mines and Minerals Department Punjab explained that mining and crushing are banned in the buffer zone which is 1,000 yards from ICT boundaries towards the Rawalpindi district.

The buffer zone was created by the mineral department to keep the sanctity of the ICT boundary and the National Park. After the creation of the buffer zone, 109 mining leases were deleted from future auctions due to which the mineral department sacrificed a heavy revenue loss, the report said.

The creation of the buffer zone was also challenged by owners of crushing operations before different courts and to stop the illegal mining of limestone in the buffer zone and its surrounding areas. The mineral department lodged 227 FIRs in the Taxila police station.

However, outside the buffer zone, a lease for mining limestone can be granted under the Punjab Mining Concession Rules 2002. At present, some of the limestone mining leases are legally operating whereas others are operating under stay orders from civil courts, the report said.

The Islamabad Electric Supply Company has been asked several times to disconnect the supply of electricity to illegal crushing operations, the report said. It added that since regulatory matters regarding the licensing of explosives were not under the purview of the mines and minerals department, the explosives department of the federal capital had been time and again been requested to take action against the illegal use of explosives.

The mineral department has requested the District Administration and Environment Department to take action against those involved in unauthorised mining and crushing in the buffer zone and its surrounding areas, the report said.

The inspector general of police, Punjab told the court through a report that orders have been passed to DPOs, CPOs and RPOs across Punjab to ensure that orders of the Supreme Court are complied with.

Police has also been deployed in Margalla Hills in order to stop illegal blasting in the mountains.

The court then postponed further proceedings till June 13 with directions to the KP government to submit a report on the matter.

Published in Dawn, June 9th, 2016