The National Green Tribunal’s Southern Bench has directed Tamil Nadu’s State Environment Impact Assessment Authority to reconsider an environmental-clearance application for a gravel-soil quarry in Kanyakumari district and complete the process within eight weeks.
The application was filed by Rajesh, a resident of Kulappuram in Kanyakumari district, for establishing a gravel-soil quarry in Puliyoor Road village in Vilavancode taluk. The State Environment Impact Assessment Authority had earlier rejected the application on specified grounds.
Rajesh challenged that rejection before the Southern Bench of the National Green Tribunal. The matter was heard by Justice Pushpa Sathyanarayana and expert member Prashant Gargava, who issued the direction on the appeal.
According to the tribunal’s order, the applicant’s appeal was accepted and the matter was sent back to the State Environment Impact Assessment Authority for reconsideration. The authority may review the application and take an appropriate decision after completing the required procedure.
The order does not grant environmental clearance for the quarry. Instead, it requires the state authority to reassess the application and reach a fresh decision. The authority’s earlier rejection therefore remains subject to the outcome of the reconsideration process ordered by the tribunal.
Gravel soil is used in construction and land-development works, making quarrying decisions relevant to the supply of building inputs as well as to local land-use regulation. Environmental clearance applications are examined by the competent authority before projects covered by the regulatory framework can proceed.
In this case, the source report does not specify the grounds on which the original application was rejected, the proposed quarry’s area, its production capacity, or the environmental conditions in the Puliyoor Road village location. It also does not state whether quarrying activity had begun at the site.
The tribunal’s direction places the next procedural responsibility with the State Environment Impact Assessment Authority. The authority is required to complete the reconsideration and take an appropriate decision within eight weeks, after which the application will have a fresh determination under the process outlined in the order.
