Dangerous quarrying behind cancer hospital in Kharghar, greens cry foul

Navi Mumbai: Environmental groups and social activists are up in arms at the reckless and relentless quarrying that has been going on the Kharghar Hills just behind a reputed cancer hospital, and close to the upcoming Kharghar-Turbhe tunnel.

In a fresh email to Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, NatConnect Foundation and Kharghar Hill and Wetland forum have questioned the authorities’ wisdom in allowing the blasting of the hills which creates dangerous dust clouds in the area, spreading into the Tata Hospital area as well as the residential colonies from Sectors 30 to 35 and beyond.

The hospital has expensive advanced cancer care equipment and dust is their enemy, NatConnect director B N Kumar pointed out.

“It is unimaginable to have dust particles in the air when cancer patients get treated here,” he said.

He recalled that the director of the Advanced Centre for Treatment, Research and Education in Cancer (ACTREC) had sometime ago written to the government complaining against the quarries. The quarrying was stopped for a while, but now the blasting is back with vengeance, lamented Jyoti Nadkarni, convenor of Kharghar Hill and Wetland forum.

“Sometimes the hills become invisible due to the heavy dust clouds,” she said and pointed out: “Mind you, there is a gram panchayat school close to the hills.”

The blast sites are contiguous to the iconic Pandavkada waterfalls which the forest department develop as an eco-tourism spot. Moreover, the government is building the Kharghar-Turbhe link road with a tunnel in the hill which is bound to get weakened due to the quarrying, Nadkarni said.

This is no rocket science, Kumar said, as “we have seen landslides in the past at Irshlawadi and the Parsik Hills”.

The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has already ruled that environmental clearance is a must for quarries, the activists pointed out and wondered as to how the Kharghar quarries are allowed.

Kumar called for a thorough environment impact assessment before such quarrying is permitted.

Shri Ekvira Aai Pratishtan and NatConnect have run a relentless campaign to prevent resumption of quarrying of Parsik Hills.

The spate of landslides in the Himalaya states where the hills are being blasted for road expansion should be an eye opener, the activists said and called for immediate halt to the Kharghar quarries.