Crushing the environment

ISLAMABAD: Licenses of a large majority of the 270 stone crushers operating in Margalla Hills nearby Islamabad have expired. Moreover, 16 of these stone crushers, having never obtained official permits, are operating illegally, according to official sources.

The digging and crushing activities in these hills are damaging the environment, which has become a cause for grave concern for the city managers.

Pakistan Environmental Protection Agency Director-General Asif Shujja told The Express Tribune that the capital’s environment will be adversely affected if measures were not taken to control the stone-crushing activities.

Officials of the Ministry of Environment met with the city managers (officials of Capital Development Authority and Islamabad Capital Territory) to discuss the situation on Tuesday. Additional Secretary Environment Kamran Ali Qureshi chaired the meeting.

“The 16 illegal stone crushers, operating near Margalla Hills, have spelled doom for the environment and have caused irreversible damage,” Qureshi said. The issue is complicated as some parts of the Margalla Hills, beyond Sangjani, fall under the jurisdiction of the Government of Punjab, he said, adding that they  should work with the city managers to find a solution to this problem.

Environmentalists believe that the activities of these stone crushers need to be immediately stopped, as continued operations can have a significantly adverse impact on the natural habitat of the hills. The population of a large number of animal species will be affected if these activities continue unchecked and some species might even go extinct.

A senior official of CDA Environment Board said that the authority had earlier issued show-cause notices to those running illegal operations but no one responded.

DC Islamabad Amer Ahmad Ali said, “Some owners of these stone factories got a stay order for two years but the majority continue to operate without any permission.”

He added that some of these stone crushers belonged to the Railways Directorate, which was using stones sourced from these hills for its railway tracks.

Another meeting between Chief Minister Punjab Muhammad Shahbaz Sharif and Federal Minister for Environment Hameedullah Jan Afridi in July, to discuss the removal of illegal stone crushers, ended without any development.

Margalla Hill Society Chief Roedad Khan said that they had forwarded a summary to the Government of Punjab, urging them to regularise the stone crushers but the matter was still pending.

“All stone crushers are operating in the buffer zone (area that falls between residential and industrial areas) and are the only source of income for more than 10,000 families,” he insisted.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 4^th, 2010.