Four illegal mines sealed in Mansehra

MANSEHRA: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Forest Department on Wednesday sealed four mines for illegally excavating granite in the Shergar Forest Range.

“We have sealed four mines found excavating granite from forests illegally and shattering trees,” Mohammad Zahoor, the assistant divisional forest officer, Shergar, told reporters in Oghi.

He said that a team of his department raided mines where precious stone granite and other minerals were excavated illegally. “We have also launched legal formalities to take to justice those involved in deforestation of the state-owned forests polluting the environment,” the official said.

He said high-ups of the Forest Department were informed of the development as nobody could excavate natural treasures from the state-owned Greenland illegally.Meanwhile, Umar Khattab Jalwal, the chairman of the Tanawal Action Committee, said that large-scale illegal mining was still taking place in Agror and Tanawal areas and the government was yet to take concrete measures to curb it.

“Our water resources, roads and other infrastructure have been shattered owing to large-scale illegal mining in the area,” he said.Umar alleged that influential people were behind all that illegal mining in Agror and Tanawal enriched with natural resources.

“The Darband-Oghi and Mansehra road is in a highly dilapidated condition owing to transportation of granite and other minerals from here to Punjab and the rest of the country,” he complained.

Umar said that the underground water table in the area had dropped significantly because of blasting and excavations of minerals.He said that the KP government should end illegal excavation and ensure that royalty was spent on the revival of infrastructure and the welfare of local communities.