aRajasthan is one of the main mineral potential states of India and during last 30 years it has witnessed enormously expansion of mining industries but mining of most of the minor minerals coupled with changing climate has posed serious problems to the environment fabric in the state.
Environment is a complex aggregate of external conditions which affect the life, development and survival of all organisms. It is composed of bio-physical and socio-economic elements. Environment and people have a reciprocal relationship. Man has been exploiting natural resources for making his life more convenient. Any exploitation of natural resources means change within the eco-system and which spreads its influence to all organism.
Even the environment acts as a natural world for us and provides a protection to us from the natural calamities. But now days due to urbanization and progressively increasing the growth rate of industrial sector & mining etc leads to the growth of various pollutions.
Pollution has become a major environmental issue as it has created lots of health hazards to the people and animals. This problem is becoming worse day by day because of the new technologies and growth and development. Pollution occurs when pollutants contaminate the natural surroundings; which affects our normal life style adversely. Environmental pollution has negatively affected the life of both human beings and animal’s. Even our flora and fauna were found to be threatened with extinction.
Environmental Pollution is getting huge by increasing level of pollution by rapid growth in the number of vehicles on the roads, mining at enormous level & increasing in the number of factories causes water, air, water, noise and land pollution.
Air Pollution, Water Pollution and Soil Pollution are the most dangerous forms of pollution causing direct health disorders to the human beings. We have no safe water to drink, pure air to inhale and pollution free land to crop.
Mining Industry has deteriorated quality of natural resources in the State of Rajasthan and these industries are becoming centers of pollution sources which need timely actions so that natural resources can be protected. Mining and related activities have a profound and wide influence on the earth’s natural environment. Mining industries enhance comfort of human life on one hand while on other hand; it pollutes the air and water, land, soil.
However, efforts made by man to harness these environmental based resources have converted into different forms of land degradation. It is clear that due to growth in human population, the desire for a better condition of living has ensued. One of such conflicts is the emergence of land degradations. Essentially, land degradation relates to the depreciations in the qualities and quantities of vegetation, soil resource, air, water resource among others. However, land degradation can be viewed more succinctly to mean a downward trend in the environmental resource such that their level of use in the human societies equally decreases at an increasing rate (FAO 1994).
Rajasthan has a large spectrum of minerals in which building stones enjoy an important place. Marble occupies a unique position among building stones due to its pleasant look and easy carving. Marble occurrences are widely distributed in India.
However, occurrences of economic importance are limited to a few states namely Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Haryana and Andhra Pradesh. Makrana marble has become famous world over. Rajasthan has the largest resources of good quality marble in India. The ever increasing popularity of the marbles of Rajasthan, growing demand for finished and unfinished products, discovery of new marble deposits and growing private and public supports have led to a significant growth in Marble Industry of this State. As a result, numbers of marble quarries as well as marble processing units have significantly gone up mainly during last one decade. However, whereas there is significant growth in production of finished and unfinished marble products, there is also simultaneous rise in waste generation as well; thereby causing concern towards the deteriorating environmental quality. A wide spread need is being felt to make this industry environmentally sustainable.
Marble ranks the largest produced natural stone in the world and it accounts for 50 % of the world’s natural stone production. Approx 90% of the world’s production of marble comes from India and around 85 % of India production is received from Rajasthan and almost all mining and processing activities are concentrated around Udaipur, Rajsamand, Makrana etc.
Mining frequently generates land use conflicts in populated areas due to its negative externalities including loss of vegetation, noise, dust, truck traffic, pollution and visually unpleasant landscapes. It also represents a conflict with competing land uses such as farming, especially in areas where high-value farmland is scarce and where post-mining restoration may be infeasible (Willis and Garrod, 1999). According to Ross, (2001) social and environmental activists have pointed out that, there are potential linkages between mineral resources exploitation and conflict and consequential underdevelopment. Amongst the building stones, marble occupies a unique position. Since time immemorial, marble has been used in temples, mosques, palaces, monuments, as well as an ornamental and decorative stone. Marble has pleasing colors, attractive patterns and designs. Suitability of marble for any purpose does not depend on chemical composition or genetic aspect, but on its physical properties which is fascination for its colour, shade, luster and design preferred by the user. Generally, the Marble is exploited in blocks and have to be processed to make them suitable for the end users. Other than quarrying waste, there are processing wastes deriving from operations like sawing, with diamond wire, slabbing, polishing etc. Basically, there are two types of natural stone processing waste: solid and semi-liquid or slurry (Almeida et al., 2007).
To avoid the increase amount of waste it is necessary to find alternative ways such as the Reuse, reclamation or recycling.
MARBLE: Marble occurrences are widely distributed in India. However, occurrences of economic importance are limited to few states only, namely Rajasthan, Jammu & Kashmir, Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, Haryana and Uttarakhand (DMG, 1989; IBN; 2015) .The total resources of all grades of marble in the country are placed at 1,931 million tones. Of these, only about 276 million tons (14%) fall under reserve category and about 1655 million tones (86%) under remaining resources category.
Grade wise, about 27% resources fall under unclassified and not known grades, 55 % under off color grade and 17 % under white color grade. The available data on marble resources reveals that about 64 % resources are in Rajasthan and 21% in Jammu & Kashmir. The remaining resources are distributed mainly in Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, Haryana, Uttarakhand and Sikkim in descending order (IBM, 2015).
The total resources of all grades of marble in the state of Rajasthan are about 1,231 Million tones of good Quality Marble in India. There are many varieties of Marble, depending up on the color, composition, texture, shades and structure. Marble of one type or another occurs in almost all the geological horizons right from Precambrian to Tertiary rocks in Rajasthan. Out of 32 districts, marble deposits are being exploited in 20 districts. The state is leading producer of marble and contributes more than 90 % of the total country production. (Dwivedi 1991; DMG, 1996; DMG, 2001; Jha, 2003; DMG, 2014, IBM, 2015).
Table 1.1
Important Marble deposits and available reserves in Rajasthan
S.No Deposit/ Belt District
1. Agaria, Amet, Kilwa, Morwad, Dharmita, Katre, Parvati,Koyal,Morchana, Arana Rajsamand
2. Makrana, Borawad(White), Chosira Dwagri (Pink, Kumari. Nagaur.
3. Kesariaji(Rikhabdeo),Odwas Udaipur
4. Babarmal (Devimata) Udaipur
5. Tripura Sundari – Talai – Odabagi – Bhim – kund – Vithaldeo, Prithvipura,Paloda Banswara
6. Andhi-Bhainslana Jaipur
7. Jhiri-Sariska Alwar
8. Selwara-Dhanwan-Koteswar Sirohi
9. Jahajpur-Kekri Bhilwara
10. Kalyanpura-Narwar-Saradhana Ajmer
11. Patan-Rampura Sikar
12. Umar Bundi
13. Sabla,Nandli-dad, Peeth,Manpur,Dachki Dungarpur
14. Mandal, Deh Chittorgarh
15. Bar-Sendra, Sarangwa, Sevari, Kundal Pali
16. Mooisagar, Amarsagar, Habur, Naripa Jaisalmer
17. Pachori Chadi, Moriya Munjasar Jodhpur
Table-1.2
Showing Geological Distribution of Marble Deposits in Rajasthan
Age/Super-Group Group Deposits
Mesozoic(Jurassic) Jaisalmer Group Yellow Marble of Jaisalmer
Delhi Super Group Ajabgarh Group Sikar district, Bhainslana, Pali, Jaipur,Sirohi
Alwar Group
Raialo Group White Marble of Makrana (Nagaur),(Jamwa Ramgarh)Jaipur, Alwar
Aravalli Super Group Udaipur Group White marble and Green marble
deposits of Rishabhdeo,
Dungarpur, Rajsamand,
Babarmal, Banswara, Selwara,
Kherwa, Perwar (Sirohi)
Archaeans Pre-Aravalli Group White marble Bhilwara,
Bundi, distt.(Umar area).
Marble is formed from limestone as a result of heat and pressure in the earth crust thereby causing a change in texture and makeup of the limestone. This process is called recrystallization. Marble mining is part of industrialization while also providing employment for hundreds of people within the community. Since long Makrana in tehsil Parabatsar of Nagaur district is known in the world for the production of quality marble. The marble deposit extends over a strike length of about 12 Kms. having a width of 1.6 Km, located in the west of Makrana town. It is trending NNE-SSW with steep dips from 50 to 70° towards ESE. In this belt there are six parallel to sub¬-parallel bands of marble having 2 to12 mts.width, occurring between Borawad and Makrana. In the main Makrana belt 50 M.T. reserves of marble have been estimated. On the basis of physical characters like colour, pattern, grain size etc. Makrana marble belt has been divided into 14 blocks.
Table-1.3 Block wise description of marble
S. No. Name of Block Type of marble Grain size Grade
1 Bhermala Pink, White, Adanga Fine I & II
2 Rawat Dungri Adanga – II
3 Kala-Nada Talab Dark Pink coarse I of II
4 Dhobi Dungri Adanga coarse III
5 Kurmari Nadi Adanga coarse III
6 Ulodi Adanga pink coarse III
7 Chaurasa White fine I
8 Range Bhot Adanga – II
9 Chak Dungri Adanga – II
10 Pink Range Light pink – –
11 Paharkuan Range White adanga – –
12 Modi Dungari Range Adanga – II
13 Kala Dungri Range Adanga – II
14 Boarwad Range – Coarse II
Out of these 14 blocks, marble produced from Chausara block is white in colour and of best quality. In general, Makrana marble is coarse grained in texture but some fine grained verities are also available in various shades. The dark streaks in some white and pink marbles are due to local bands of graphitic nature derived from the original limestone. Sometimes it gives a beautiful appearance (Adanga marble) to the finished product which is in great demand especially for exterior use.
In the main Makrana belt marble quarries have gone so deep that now it is practically unmanageable for mining point of view. Department of Mines & Geology has carried out detailed exploration work to prove the subsurface continuity of the Makrana marble belt. As a result department has proved about 4.4 km. strike extension of marble having 10 to 50 mts. thickness, under the sand cover of 15 to 20 mts. Marble available in the extension area is generally white in colour having gray lines and fine grained in texture.