Fed up with the rampant drilling of stones, reckless muck dumping next to the river bed, and felling of trees, locals from Raini village, where the Rishiganga project had come up, moved the Uttarakhand High Court in 2019.
In their petition, the villagers observed that all the waste material was directly being dumped in Rishi Ganga. “It was noticed that blatant stone crushing activity was being carried out right on the river bed, flouting all norms that govern stone crushing activity in this area,” Kundan Singh, a resident of Raini village said in the PIL.
The HC asked the state pollution control board and district magistrate to examine whether such use of explosives may damage the Nanda Devi Biosphere Reserve and the Valley of Flowers. The joint inspection team found no proof of the use of explosives, but reported deposition of muck around the barrage and the power house.
Meanwhile, the villagers live in fear. “We feel shocks every time a heavy vehicle passes by. We live with a sense of fear that our homes could be destroyed in landslides similar to the one witnessed on February 7,” said Mamata Rana, a resident of Raini village.
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