Illegal limestone quarries raided near Lion Sanctuary in Gir

An illegal limestone mining scam was unearthed in the buffer zone around Gir Lion Sanctuary by the Gir-Somnath district authorities which then raided four quarries and seized machinery worth Rs 7.8 lakhs, officials said today.
Acting on a tip-off, revenue officer of Gir-Gadhda B V Limbachiya and his team on Sunday raided Jargali village and busted four illegal quarries extracting limestone from the area.
"The raid was carried out by a team led by Limbachiya on March 3 at Jargali village, where they found four illegal quarries of limestone," Resident Additional Collector of Gir-Somnath, P B Pandya said.
Since the village falls in the buffer zone covering 10 km radius from the outer limit of the Sanctuary, there is a total ban on any mining activity in that area.

As per the details provided by the "prant" office of Gir-Gadhda, 13 stone-cutting machines, one tractor and a generator, having total worth of Rs 7.8 lakhs, were seized in the raid.
"Since the quarry operators and workers ran away before the raid, no one was arrested from the spot. Since the village falls in the buffer zone of forest area, mining of limestone or any other mineral is prohibited by law," said Hitesh Patel, an official of Gir-Gadhda prant office.
Gir Sanctuary is the last abode of Asiatic Lions, where as per the last census conducted in 2015, the count of lion found was 523.