Environmental and social impacts of stone quarrying-a case study of kolhapur district

Rapid growth of construction activity, to meet the modern day requirements of increasing population and housing and infrastructure development needs of the society, has immensely boosted the demand for building materials in Kolhapur district. Stone quarrying continues to play major role in this process. However, the activity has caused serious environmental degradation and socio-economic conflicts in the study area. The major environmental and socio-economic problems related to quarrying revealed during this study include, landscape alteration, hill cutting affecting local biodiversity, generation of unproductive wastelands, dust pollution, noise pollution, illegal stone extraction, accidents and in some areas lowering of groundwater table.