Residents want Tirupur corporation to remove waste from stone quarries, move NGT

COIMBATORE: Residents of Kalampalayam and surrounding villages have demanded that the Tirupur City Municipal Corporation remove the waste dumped in stone quarries in their area before it contaminates the groundwater.

They have filed petitions in the National Green Tribunal (NGT), South Zone, Chennai, for a direction to the civic body to remove the waste.Kalampalayam village falls under Pongupalayam village panchayat. Earlier, more than 45 stone quarries had been functioning on 60 acres of land, including six acres of revenue land. The villagers fought against the stone quarries, which were closed permanently by the govt in 2024.“The corporation had dumped garbage in a few abandoned stone quarries located on the revenue department’s six acres of land in Kalampalayam village from Oct 2024 to May 2025.

Due to heavy rain in Tirupur, the rainwater was stagnated in the stone quarries. Due to the garbage, the stagnated water was contaminated with leachate, and it started to seep into other stone quarries,” said R Sathish Kumar, an RTI activist in Tirupur.As of now, the water in three stone quarries is contaminated with leachate. “Some of the stone quarries are more than 100 feet deep. We can use the rainwater stored in the quarries as groundwater recharge.

Before contaminating all the stone quarries, we request the Tirupur City Municipal Corporation to clear the garbage along with the contaminated water from three abandoned quarries. Otherwise, the leachate will seep into all the quarries, and the entire water will be contaminated, and the groundwater will be polluted,” said Sathish Kumar.Sathish filed a case before the NGT, South Zone last year. On Friday, he submitted in the NGT a report with indications of possible contamination at the Thirumuruganpoondi temple site, which is located 1 km away from the abandoned quarries. Residents of Kalampalayam and surrounding areas have also filed petitions in the NGT in the last two weeks, seeking a direction to the corporation to clear the waste from the quarries.