The Kerala government has sharply criticized an expert panel’s report, which suggested widening the safety buffer between stone quarries and residential zones to 150 meters. The state claims the report is deeply flawed and unnecessary.
In a submission to the National Green Tribunal’s (NGT) Principal Bench on September 18, 2025, the government asserted that the current regulatory distance of 50 meters between quarries and homes does not need to be increased, pointing to multiple “flaws” in the panel’s methodology.
The NGT-appointed committee had previously concluded that the current 50-meter safety zone was “highly inadequate.” This conclusion was drawn from scientific studies conducted at quarries across nine districts in the state.
However, the government’s counter-report argues that the expert panel’s “live experiments” suffered from numerous anomalies, questioning their methodology and design. It highlighted that while Kerala had 497 active granite quarries between 2022-2023, the study’s sample size was disproportionately small.
Specifically, only nine quarries (a mere 1.8% of the total) were included in the sample, which the government deems insufficient to represent the entire state’s quarrying landscape. They pointed out that a statistically sound sample for 497 quarries, with a 20% margin of error, would require at least 23 sites. Furthermore, the report failed to explain the criteria for selecting these nine sites, notably excluding districts with the highest concentration of active quarries.
The government also challenged the panel’s records on blasting operations, which stated daily blasting occurred at two fixed times using a maximum of 60 holes. The state argued that it is extremely uncommon for any quarry in Kerala to conduct blasting with 60 holes simultaneously, suggesting an exaggeration of typical operations.
According to the government, the panel’s report “unfairly and unjustly” contrived scenarios to demonstrate maximum ground vibrations, thereby overstating potential impacts. They warned that increasing the safety distance would drastically shrink the available mining areas in Kerala, leading to a severe shortage of essential construction materials.
The original joint committee, responsible for the contested recommendations, included specialists from esteemed institutions such as the Indian Institute of Technology (Indian School of Mines), Dhanbad; Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee; CSIR-Central Building Research Institute, Roorkee; the Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology, Dehradun; Directorate General of Mines Safety, Bengaluru; Central Institute of Mining and Fuel Research, Dhanbad; and the Central Pollution Control Board.