70 and counting, abandoned quarries continue to pose safety threats in Kerala’s Ernakulam district

Nearly one kilometre from Seaport-Airport Road, along Irumpanam-Eroor Road lies a vast pond, almost hidden from public view. Surrounded by green, overgrown flora and filled with deep stagnant water, the pond masks one of the oldest stone quarries in the district.

The Parakkadavu pond, as the waterbody is known among local people, is one of the nearly 70 abandoned quarries identified in the district by the authorities. With a compound wall covering it only partially, the pit lake exposes safety concerns over the many such formations in the district.

“Mining had stopped over 40 years ago at the site. Earlier, people used to take bath and wash their clothes in the pond. Nowadays, nobody uses it though there are houses close to it,” said Sahadevan, a resident in his seventies. He recalled that some children had drowned in the pond years ago, though there was no accident in the recent past.

A few kilometres from the deserted Parakkadavu pond, Pedikkattu pond at Irumpanam, another pit lake, paints a different picture. Smaller in size, it has a well-built compound wall and a safety net around it. Though there is a warning board set up by the Thripunithura municipality discouraging people from entering the waters, residents say they still use it for washing clothes.

While Thripunithura municipality has identified only two sites as abandoned quarries, Thiruvaniyoor grama panchayat leads the list compiled by the district administration with 18. Mookkannoor grama panchayat has identified 12, followed by Varappetty and Parakkadavu panchayats with 10 and 9 respectively. Malayattoor-Neeleeswaram grama panchayat has identified six such sites.

The district administration is compiling the list as part of ensuring safety measures around the sites in the wake of repeated fatal accidents, including the drowning of a Delhi-based model at the infamous Pettamala quarry pond at Mudakkuzha panchayat near Perumbavoor in May.

“For abandoned quarries lying in government land, we will build boundary walls, and for those in private properties, the landowners will be issued notices to set up walls without fail,” District Collector G. Priyanka said.

An official at Mookkannoor panchayat, meanwhile, pointed out the difficulty in identifying and accessing several abandoned quarries. “There could be more such sites than what we have identified. We have been contacting people who owned quarries in the past to get accurate data. Several sites remain filled with water and are overgrown. There have not been any accidents at the sites we identified recently, but the abandoned quarries often pose safety threats,” the official said. He added that people may be using such sites, mostly those in deserted areas, to dump waste also.

Shajimol P.K., a geologist with the Mining and Geology department, said most of the abandoned quarries had stopped functioning before 2015 as they lacked mining plans. “Since 2015, clauses related to closure of a quarry was made part of the mining plan. Efforts are on to ensure safety around the abandoned sites using funds from the District Mineral Foundation,” she added.