The Madurai Bench of the Madras High court today ordered issue of a notice to union and Tamil Nadu Home Secretaries, the DGP and the District Collector, among others, on a petition seeking, among other things, to ban illegal mining of beach sand containing monazite in Kanayakumari district.
A Division Bench of Justice S.Tamilvanan and Justice V.S.Ravi ordered the officials to reply within two days.
The petitioner, an advocate, submitted that three coastal villages had sand rich in monazite. After the 2004 tsunami, casuarinas were planted on a large-scale and a forest atmosphere had been created in the villages where peacocks and others birds were in large number.
However, some persons were felling trees illegally, causing hindrance to the flora and fauna. The illegal hunting of birds was also going on and one P.Maheswaran who complained against them was forced to withdraw the complaint, the petitioner alleged.
Hence, he prayed to the court to directly intervene and direct the central government and the state home department besides police officials to ban sand mining, illegal felling of trees and hunting of peacocks.
