Three vehicles seized by income officers from Periyakulam tank at E. Kumaralingapuram village, in Virudhunagar district, for unlawful quarrying of gravel. (a file image)
| Photograph Credit score: BY SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT
The killing of Jagabar Ali in January this yr by members of Tamil Nadu’s mining mafia could have added one other darkish chapter to the continuing battle towards unlawful mining within the State, however activists are equally frightened over the truth that neither the federal government nor the judiciary has been capable of stem the rot. The judiciary, for its half, has largely confined itself to issuing instructions with out guaranteeing their implementation. No suo motu PIL petitions have been initiated by the Excessive Courtroom Authorized Providers Authority, nor have any Particular Benches been constituted to handle the problem.
In Ali’s case, the Excessive Courtroom’s ineffectiveness was evident: the quarries remained open regardless of the court docket’s order dated September 5, 2023, directing the Collector to examine and shut the unlicensed ones. And Ali was killed regardless of his petitions to the police looking for safety. The Excessive Courtroom too didn’t order police safety regardless of his representations since June 2024.
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In an analogous case, R. Jeganathan from Karur, who persistently fought for the closure of unlawful quarries, was run over by a lorry in September 2022. On this case too, the Excessive Courtroom was reluctant to offer safety to the witnesses and switch the trial to a different district, even after the activist’s loss of life.
In 2014, listening to the case of the homicide of Thanikachalam, a 60-year-old activist from Vellore, Justice Anand Venkatesh of the Madras Excessive Courtroom famous: “The petitioner is a extremely educated one who determined to dedicate his life in the direction of conservation of waterbodies. Only a few individuals dedicate their lives to the general public trigger.”
Though Thanikachalam efficiently acquired an order from the Excessive Courtroom, the district administration refused to take away the encroachments on the water physique alongside the Kannar channel connecting Thottalam lake in Pallur Pudur till November 2014. Thanikachalam was subsequently killed. Even after his loss of life, the police reportedly connived with the encroachers and discrepancies had been reported within the autopsy procedures.
Veeramalai and his son Nallathambi had been combating for the removing of encroachments on a lake in Muthalaipatti village in Karur and approached the Excessive Courtroom in 2016. The court docket directed the removing of the encroachments, however the authorities didn’t implement the order. The court docket expressed its exasperation, stating: “It’s unlucky that regardless of a discover for removing of unauthorised occupation of a waterbody [lake], no motion has been taken until now…. Regardless of a variety of instructions issued, unauthorised occupants are persevering with to carry waterbodies with the tacit help of the officers.”
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The court docket ordered the federal government to file a standing report and adopted it with a contempt petition. Provoked by these strikes, the encroachers killed Veeramalai and his son on July 29, 2019. The Excessive Courtroom took suo motu cognisance of the homicide and mentioned: “On account of the torpid perspective exhibited by the involved official respondents, encroachers started to suppose that it’s their basic proper to encroach upon the water our bodies… the federal government ought to get up to the fact and take applicable, speedy, and remedial motion.”
For a lot of environmental activists battling a corrupt administrative equipment, the court docket stays a lone ray of hope. However the judiciary’s tentative interventions to this point have solely emboldened the mafias. It should act strongly earlier than we lose many extra Alis.
Henri Tiphagne and Edgar Kaiser are legal professionals at Folks’s Watch, Madurai, aiding activists legally on the Madurai Bench of Madras Excessive Courtroom.
