Staff Correspondent
Port Blair, Jan 03: Earth cutting has become a one of the most profitable businesses in Andaman and Nicobar Islands, ever since the laws for quarry and crusher operation have been made strict by the Andaman and Nicobar Administration. After Sippighat one can easily find indiscriminate earth cutting atleast in dozens of areas in South Andaman. These loose earth are mostly used by private parties to fill the tsunami inundated land so that those land could be sold to people as house sites.
Earlier also several media organisations have raised questions over such indiscriminate earth cutting which has not only become an eyesore but also damaging the ecology. In most of the case one can find that private contractors are cutting green hillocks on which there is still plantation and in some cases, naturally grown trees. One wonders how private parties are getting green signal from Administration.
Moreover, careless earth cutting work is also disrupting normal traffic in ATR as loose earth makes the ATR stretch after Sippighat and Dhanikhari muddy and slippery, which may cause accident at any time.
