Granite quarry in Kozhikode cracks open a divide

A granite quarry and crusher facility has bared the divide between the politically connected and the ordinary, allegedly cracked open the walls of houses nearby and is fast changing the landscape from a verdant green to an angry red at Peruvayal village in Kunnamangalam.

But mistake not. Chaliyar Granite Private Ltd. is a licensed outfit. Their papers say so. Moosa Moulavi, a partner, introduces himself as a social worker and general convener of the Indian Union Muslim Leagues Kunnamangalam Assembly constituency committee. He says the quarry is run by a few workers from the neighbourhood. It is a livelihood for us, he insists.

Mr. Moulavi invitesThe Hinduinto a small office opposite the crusher unit up a winding narrow road atop the Pallikadavu hill with a panoramic sight of the Chaliyar glistening in the evening sun.

In the dust-laden atmosphere, a few trucks have queued up for their daily load of quarried granite, in various forms from gravel to blocks. Somewhere in the slopes of the hill, metallic thuds of an excavator punching the rock face of the hill fills the air.

Mr. Moulavi does not for a moment hesitate to produce the documents giving him the right to dig the hill. The licences are handed over to this correspondent. The factory licence, the explosives licence, environment certificate, and the no objection certificate from the panchayat all of them.

We have nothing to hide. What we are doing is totally legal, he said. His certificate under the Kerala Minor Minerals Concession Rules, 1967, gives him permission to quarry two plots measuring 24 cents each on the hill. We bought 15 acres here. The crusher does not require all that land. But we bought it anyway so that the local people are not disturbed by our work We are all residents of this area, he said.

He pouts when told about the cracks on peoples homes. Their houses are over 100 metres from this quarry. Look at my office, there is no crack on my walls, he reasoned.

Khadeeja Puthukadi, who lives on the steep slope leading to the quarry, hardly agrees with Mr. Moulavi. Her front yard is cracked, so are her walls. She says the earth trembles when explosives are detonated. But we are poor. There is no one to talk for us, she said.

Her neighbour, Rekha Rajesh, a young widow who lives with her two children, has just moved into a small concrete house from a tin-roofed shed.

Her husband died in an accident last year. We pooled money to build a house for her. Now she is scared that jerks from the quarry may damage her new house, T.C. Ali, a local madrasa teacher and neighbour, said.

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Granite quarry in Kozhikode cracks open a divide