Soni Varku Warghada, 55, remembers the day in 2007 when she saw the first trucks enter Koparyachiwadi hamlet in Chinchavli village, Thane district, Maharashtra. After foraging for leaves, tubers, and fruits, and collecting the branches of dried trees for firewood, Soni recalls walking down Chanderi Dhar hill with her four sons, all under 15 then, and a few women from their hamlet.
While keeping what they had collected in makeshift cloth bags made of old saris, they witnessed the unfamiliar sound and sight of heavy trucks moving through the mountainous terrain. Villagers came out of their huts on hearing the backfiring of the engines. Excited children began chasing the trucks, hoping some ‘bada babu’ had arrived from Mumbai with treats for them.
“We had never seen such heavy vehicles. The lorries — at least six — were moving towards the hill. Around 25 to 30 men got out of the vehicles and started looking around the area,” Soni recollects. As the women and children stood and stared, “the men looked at us, ignored us, and then entered the forest”, she says. “Some of them took out large blades (tree cutters) and axes.”
Within a year, she says, the forest cover around the village was cleared and levelling of the hill began. “By 2010, rocks were blasted and cut. A big machine began to crush the stones.” A member of the Thakar tribe of forest dwellers, who worship the forest as their nurturing mother, Soni says the experience was traumatic.
Residents say the forest earlier provided the population of about 2,000 food and sources of livelihood, but soon they had to buy vegetables from the market and leave homes to find jobs as they could no longer depend on the forest. They claim quarrying has affected their health, depleted natural resources, and upset biodiversity.
In 2015, Laxmi Stone Industries was granted a quarry lease for five years for extraction and sale of stone and earth across four hectares. This was renewed for another five years in 2019. However, officials from the Forest Department say the company had never sought permission from them to start stone quarrying. The company did not respond to requests for comment.
Koparyachiwadi is a three-hour drive — 65-70 km — from Mumbai, and an hour and a half’s walk from Chanderi Fort in Ambernath, a popular trekking spot 790 metres above sea level. The path to the hamlet is through rocky slopes and river valleys, with dry, dusty vegetation.
Stone quarrying waste is allegedly released into water bodies in and around Chinchavli village.
| Photo Credit:
Purnima Sah
Health trouble
Soni’s son, Bhaskar Warghada, 30, points to a well in the hamlet and says it was dug by his ancestors and was the primary source of potable water. “We stopped drawing water from here since the quarrying began. Many fell sick drinking water from it in the initial years. Within a year, the water bodies started releasing a strong stench, and many felt nausea, dizziness, uneasiness, and breathing difficulties…,” he says, listing problems they allegedly faced.
Bhaskar claims the quarrying company was releasing untreated effluents into the Ulhas river, which flows through the hamlet and supplies drinking water to over three million people in Badlapur and Thane. His son, who is about a year-and-a-half old, has remained unwell since he was born. “When my wife was pregnant with him, she fell ill frequently. The extreme noise pollution as well as dust particles for 24 hours made her restless,” Bhaskar says.
In a year, he claims to have spent over ₹1 lakh on the child’s health by taking loans from people. “Our older son, 8, also had similar health complications, so we have kept him in an ashram shala [a government-run residential school for tribal children about 180 km away] in Shinde village.”
For over 35 years, Dr. Vivek Eknath Redkar has been working closely with people exposed to quarrying dust and has published research papers on the ill-effects of mining dust on human health. In his experience, people exposed to dust for over a decade often suffer from upper and lower respiratory infections, including chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and bronchial asthma. “It is a government norm to appoint permanent healthcare practitioners and set up a medical facility in mining and quarrying areas to regularly check on the health of people,” he says.
Pinky Yashwant Warghada, 24, complains that “we never have any healthcare worker visiting our village”. Bhagwan Gawanda, 29, lives with his wife; two children, both under 10; parents; and a brother. All of them claim to have similar health complications. “We have been surviving on pills that we get from the government hospital (7 km away),” says Gawanda.
Tara Sunil Warghada, 30, remembers getting married and moving into the village 11 years ago, only to be greeted by a thick layer of dust in the house. Her in-laws apologised, but it makes her wonder if “living close to a war zone feels like this”. Every house has a person who dusts surfaces day and night.
“Since we live in huts, the dust particles enter from the ceiling and gaps in windows and doors. Cooking without dust has been impossible since our kitchen is not covered with concrete walls,” Tara, who has two children, says.
Mining dust rises from the stone quarry in Chinchavli village, Thane district, western Maharashtra.
| Photo Credit:
Purnima Sah
Village struggles
In the village, people grow paddy and seasonal vegetables for their own consumption. When the stone quarry was established, the residents say, some got temporary jobs as helpers, but were later sacked for raising health and environmental concerns. Some men are employed as daily wage workers at construction sites or farms. Women climb the hills to fetch water and collect firewood. They look after their homes and children. Most of the population is unlettered.
Koparyachiwadi comes under a gram panchayat that comprises Chamtoli, Bendshil, Chinchavli, and Tan villages in Ambernath taluka.
Restaurateur and social worker Dhanaji Irmali, 42, says none of the residents were consulted before the stone quarry work began. “Laxmi Stone Industries is owned by Vishvanath Ramchandra Panvelkar, a familiar name in Thane and Badlapur as the Panvelkar Group is known for real estate projects. The tehsildar, gram panchayat, and Collector granted him permission to set up a stone-crushing unit and make ready-mix concrete,” he says, adding that it now has four units.
Eight years ago, the residents approached politician Kisan Shankar Kathore, a four-time BJP MLA from Thane district’s Murbad constituency, who lives 10 km away. Through him, they approached the Collector, tehsildar, and the police, but nothing came of it.
In 2019 and 2023, the members of the gram panchayat opposed the decision and permission granted by two consecutive sarpanches for the stone quarry to operate.
Gram panchayat member and Dhanaji’s wife, Usha Dhanaji Irmali, 39, says the villagers wrote to former Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, the District Collector, State Environment Department, and Governor. The villagers claim they then started receiving threats from the quarry owner. Earlier this year, the village was to get its first water tank for a central supply, but the work abruptly stopped, and they say Panvelkar is responsible for it.
Panvelkar has released a series of videos on YouTube rubbishing the allegations. In one of the videos, he claims to be the owner of the village and that he plans to provide rehabilitation to the people at another site. His stone quarrying business is for the development of the nation, he says in the videos. He was not available for comment.
A resident shows cracks in her house.
| Photo Credit:
Purnima Sah
Court rulings and on-ground reality
On July 8, 2024, Ambernath tehsildar Prashanti Mane issued a notice to Panvelkar to stop quarrying in the village citing health hazards. It warned that the company’s licence to operate there would be revoked. Mane was transferred soon after the notice was issued.
In 2022, a reply to an RTI query by activist-environmentalist Nandakumar Waman Pawar revealed that stone quarrying was being done in the Matheran Eco-Sensitive Zone (MESZ). Matheran is a hill station near Mumbai where motor vehicles are banned. As per the Supreme Court notification dated February 4, 2003, any quarrying within the MESZ is prohibited under the Environment Protection Act, 1986. It also states that no mining or quarry activity can take place in Matheran and its surrounding region — 214.73 sq km and a 200-metre buffer zone. The RTI response revealed that the quarry site was located inside the buffer zone of the MESZ, which includes a part of Chinchavali village, as per the zonal master plan prepared by the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority in 1987.
On September 4, 2024, a public interest litigation (PIL) plea was filed in the Bombay High Court claiming that though the mining lease and environment clearance had been granted for operations in four hectares, satellite imagery showed that it covered 9.88 hectares. The PIL stated that this made the area vulnerable to erosion and “the entire village susceptible to landslides whilst causing extremely high air and water pollution in the region”.
In a subsequent order, the High Court directed that the stay order by the tehsildar continue and that the matter be probed. This month, the Thane Collector submitted an affidavit in the court stating that the firm had mined beyond its licence. For this, the State government levied penalties and fine of over ₹180 crore on the firm.
Despite the court order, when Today News 24 visited the village in December last year, the sound of stones being crushed and the sight of trucks transporting them continued.
Published – January 18, 2025 08:18 pm IST
