What you should know
Ram Bahadur Tamang of Chalal Ganesthan of Bethanchok Rural Municipality-4 spent nine months in agony after the last October landslide. He is facing the risk of floods and landslides, he is worried about saving his life if it rains heavily. The residents of Chalal Ganeshthan are now facing another threat due to the indiscriminate excavation by the mining industry.
On the morning of June 27, a dry landslide hit the Ganesh Sthan mineral industry operating in Chalal Ganesh Sthan. The dry landslide has caused even more panic among the locals who were not affected by last year's flood and landslide.
Locals are even more scared because the dry landslides are not natural but artificial. Locals have said that while excavating the mine, it is necessary to dig from top to bottom, but when digging downwards, a dry landslide occurred. One of the owners of the mine said that while digging the mine, it is supposed to be dug from the top and downwards. "When digging from the top and going down, it uses more labor, cost and resources," he said.
According to Engineer Gyan Prasad Timalsina of Bethanchok Rural Municipality, there is a provision to dig from the top of the hill by making a slope, clearing it and going down. He said that the workers, settlement and community will be safe when mining is done in that way. According to him, the workers and the settlement are unsafe when digging from below. "During excavation in that way, landslides occur, from which there is a risk of causing great damage," he said. Engineer Timilsana said that this work is against the standards of the mining industry.
Crusher industry operating standards state that it should be 500 meters away from highways, streams, rivers, bridges, Taltalaiya, and 2 kilometers away from educational institutions, health institutions, settlements, religious, cultural, archeological places and security agencies. In the sand and stone processing industry, it is mentioned that there will be side drains, mud settling ponds, arrangements for air pollution control. However, the mine does not seem to be operating in accordance with the said standards. Across from the mine is a community building and Ganesh Basic School . There is a ward office, a health post and a dense settlement in front of the mine. "Mining and crushers are being operated near schools, health posts, settlements," said local Ram Bahadur Tamang, "We don't know what the standards are, but we are having problems when crushers are operating in settlements."
Excavation is going on near the house of a local Naxal Maya. He is always afraid that a landslide will occur while digging. She said that they were always in fear because of the mining and crusher industries operating in the slums.
Chalal Ganeshthan mineral industry operating in the slums against the norms located in Bethanchok rural municipality-4. Photo: Jyoti Shrestha/Kantipur
50-year-old Sunmaya Tamang of Bethan Chowk-4 Chalal Dobhan said that they always had to live in fear due to the mining and crusher industry operating in the slums. She said that she had to live in fear during random mining. "It's rainy season, you don't know when it will rain," she said. There is fear, as life was saved, there is nowhere to go.'
horror from own mine
67-year-old Sher Bahadur Tamang of Chalal Dobhan located in Bethanchok Rural Municipality-4 has a mining industry called Ramkrishna Nirman Seva running day and night. He is worried about the risk that the mining industry operating on his own land may cause.
Every trip he gets 2000 rupees from the material extracted from the mine . "There is a little fear during the rainy season, a little worry when it starts to rain," he said, "There is a fear of a landslide from the mine and a flood from the nearby river."
3 registered mines and 1 crusher industry are operating in Bethanchok Rural Municipality. In the meeting with the mine and crusher owners on June 4th, the rural municipality held a meeting with the mine and crusher operators to organize the unorganized and non-standard mining and crusher industries, the management of the dust coming out of the mine, the parking of the vehicles related to the mines and crushers in a disorderly manner, registration and renewal, and timely submission of the royalties owed to the state were discussed. The meeting directed the mining and crusher industry operating in the municipality to operate according to the standards.
On June 4, the municipality had sent a letter to the industries asking them to follow the standards and to measure the mining area. Bhagwan Adhikari, chairman of Bethanchok rural municipality, said that the mining and crusher industries operating in the municipality have been instructed many times to operate in an orderly manner and in accordance with the standards.
District Coordinating Committee Chief Deepak Gautam said that the decision to operate mines and crushers was made only after the geologist gave a report, but it was not implemented. "Since the municipalities are responsible for the management of mines and crushers and the district coordination committee is responsible for monitoring, on what basis the local level operates mines and crushers," District Monitoring Committee Coordinator and Head of District Coordination Committee Gautam said, "We have closed the mines in response to the decision taken by the concerned municipality." On Sunday, the district monitoring committee has written to the local level to close the mining and crusher industry of Bethanchowk, which is operating against the standards.
As the risk of floods and landslides remains, the municipalities declared by the government to be extremely affected are being operated without even a geographical and environmental assessment. It has been found that most of the mining and crusher industries of this region are being operated without study. According to the District Coordinating Committee, the geological study of the flood-affected areas in the district was conducted and the decision was made to operate mines and crushers only based on the study report.
The meeting chaired by District Coordinating Committee Chief Gautam decided to request the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority for a serious and detailed study on all aspects related to the geological conditions of the settlements, mines, river forest areas, etc. Similarly, last October, the District Security Committee decided to shut down the illegally operating stone and crusher industry after judging that there had been complaints of huge loss of life due to stone and crushers being operated against the law. However, without implementing both the decisions, the mining and crusher industries have resumed operations without permission.
Likewise, although the administration office wrote to all the municipalities in the district on January 3 to close the illegally operated stone quarries and crushers, no one has received any information about the implementation. Chief District Officer Umesh Kumar Dhakal informed that although the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority has requested a group of geological and environmental experts for settlements, mines, rivers and forests, they have not been sent yet. According to him, due to riverine and mining crushers and industries, there has been more damage in disaster incidents, river flow has changed the bank, settlements are at risk, dust and Gegran have raised the level of rivers, so he has repeatedly requested an expert group for geological and environmental research of the settlement, mine, river and forest area, but no one has come yet.
