Godavari marbles and talks of pollution!

Rana Prime Minister Juddha Shamsher who is considered to be the father of the Industrialization process in Nepal knew that Godavari area had Marble ores in abundance that could cater to the national need for decades and decades. And this came true later almost after forty plus years when at this time the MC group-Madanlal-Chiranjilal took it over under a new management and started extracting marbles of different attractive colors for the national consumption and export as well. (MC group comes from my own hometown Biratnagar, however, I’ve no contacts whatsoever with this group). Since then this Marble business has been flourishing catering to the needs of even Indian cities, for example, Calcutta, Bombay, Hyderabad and Delhi albeit inside Nepal it is very much in use.

The factory as it stands today saw the expertise of Italians who are considered to be far ahead of the rest of the world, facilitated Italian machines for the cutting, polishing and the related jobs which could be seen even today inside the factory.

It is said that the entire Godavari area possesses marbles of the highest class, as per the world standard, however this factory has been granted to explore ores only in the area of eight hectares. Bharat Kunwar, a mining engineer at the factory briefing the media men visiting his factory the other day said that the huge establishment produces nine lakhs square feet of the finished products of which almost sixty-five percent of the total production goes to India’s various cities. However, the fresh taxes levied upon marbles by Indian authorities have added to the financial burden of the factory. "We contribute about 1.75 crores of rupees to the national coffer each year. This comprises of the electricity bills, a sizeable chunk of the earnings go the social activities including a fixed donation to the local village development committee and albeit charity donations to various social institutions including some local primary schools", added the mining engineer.

Talking of the environment pollution created by the factory, Bharat Kunwar admitted that initially there had been this problem to a degree, however, with the introduction of new pollution control measures the rate of pollution has been brought down to an unimaginable level. Elaborating the measures, Kunwar says: " We promote greenery in the area from where the marble boulders are extracted; we have maintained a peripheral drainage system that does not allow the water to enter the ditch after the extraction and the dust emanating during the cutting and the related jobs are being instantly treated wiith water in various cycles which finally sediments and it is here at this stage we dump the collected dust in a declared dump-site; the bare lands are planted with fast growing trees in order to maintain the standard of the environment. This process is extended to planting of fast growing grass which controls soil erosion. According to Kunwar, explosions are timed at between 9-10 AM and the people around the area, mostly the school going kids have been informed about this which has made the kids to remain inside the classes. "There is no question of using the explosives on our own whims and wishes as the explosives very now remains under the control of the near by police post and they, the police men, themselves come with the required quantity of the explosives and detonation of the marble ore is accomplished right in their presence"’, explained Bharat.

Not to disturb the flora and fauna in the area, measures to control noise pollution and the likes have already been installed. Noise creating machines have been duly covered to lessen the noise emission, added Kunwar.

"Environment friendly machines have replaced the former noise creating machines", continued the mining engineer.

Even at time of carrying out big and heavy blasts, some new sophisticated techniques have been applied, such as the use of wire saw stripes that explodes upon ignition, which minimize the sound to a greater extent at time of the explosion. In addition to these, the big boulders could be cut using rolling cutters through the use of electricity which I could see myself.

The factory employees currently six hundred workers and their dependents.

Well, pollution is there definitely. However, pollution control measures currently in use in the factory and in and around the mines is satisfactory. Nothing to panic. An established factory of this sort must be encouraged as it is earning foreign currency and giving employment to so many workers. The criticisms of the environmentalists are at its place and we do not see any point in rejecting their claims outrightly. We too as others are concerned with the process of environment degradation equally as some informed and qualified environmentalists are, but yet closing down a running factory perhaps could not be the right solution. What could be best suggested to the factory owners is to double their efforts that satisfies the standards set by the Nepali environmentalists and indeed by the government as well. After all there is always room for improvement.

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