New Haryana rules on stone crusher units may blunt the war on air pollution

Easing of proximity norms will not only impact air and water quality but could also turn vast tracts of farm land barred, say experts

Haryana's new draft rules for polluting stone crusher units on its soil are likely to see more than 200 of them restarting operations after having been shut down under a previous law.

The norms relate to the proximity of stone crushers to forests, national highways, educational institutions, district roads, water bodies and villages. Under the new draft, the state government has reduced the minimum distance a stone crusher must maintain from a national or state highway to 0.5 km from 1 km earlier. The distance from a municipal corporation has been shortened to 2 km from 3 km.

The draft has also allowed crusher units to be located outside existing or approved zones as well (except in Faridabad, Palwal and Gurugram). The minimum distance required from a village boundary has also been reduced to 0.5 km from 1 km.

According to experts, the new norms have benefitted the crushing industry at the cost of the environment. As many as 210 stone crusher units were found violating rules across Haryana, while 45 were found non-compliant with air pollution measures, according to the Haryana State Pollution Control Board’s December 2021 reply before the National Green Tribunal.

In 2020, some 36,211 cases of airborne diseases were reported in Narnaul district, according to the documents that the State Pollution Control Board submitted to the NGT. Seventy non-compliant crusher units were closed in Mahendergarh district after NGT’s order in 2019.

Tejpal Yadav, an environmentalist from Mahendergarh district and the petitioner in the case against crusher units in the NGT, said, “Reducing the distance and allowing crusher units to be located outside existing or approved zones will reverse the NGT’s order and would permit these units to function again.” There are 162 crusher units with major mineral-grinding machines in Mahendragarh, Bawal and Nangal Chaudhary tehsils of Mahendergarh district.

Nivit K Yadav, programme director, industrial pollution, Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), says: “Stone crushers have become a major source of fugitive emission owing to the extremely polluting process of crushing stones into smaller sizes or into powder. Even with a slight breeze or movement of vehicles, an enormous amount of dust travels a long distance.”

The problem isn't limited to airborne diseases and the water crisis--farmland has turned barren due to the dust coming from these units. “Nothing can be grown within a 200-metre radius of the roads on which the trucks pass. If all the units get operational, the biodiversity of the entire region will be destroyed,” says Tejpal.

The draft notification states that suspended particulate matter (SPM) found three to ten metres from any process equipment of a stone crushing unit must not exceed 600 micrograms per cubic metre.

According to CSE researchers, this norm is usually met by units only when an inspection and monitoring exercise is underway – a plant’s operational capacity is reduced deliberately during this period to ensure the criterion is met. On all other days, when the units run at full capacity, there are substantial dust emissions.

CSE recommends that in order to understand the actual SPM load from these units, the government should install ambient monitoring stations both in the upwind and downwind directions of the crusher zone. As Haryana already has dedicated crusher zones, this measure can be easily implemented in the state.