Many brick kilns situated near riverside villages in Jajpur district are creating pollution and increasing atmospheric heat in the vicinity making life unbearable for the locals.
"We are not coming out from our houses as the chimneys of the brick kilns emit polluted ashes in our village," lamented Manash Samala, a school teacher of Kabatabandha village.
large numbers of brick kilns are operating without obtaining any permission from the authority though it is mandatory for a brick kiln owner to obtain permission from the local Tehsil office, alleged Bata Jena of Sathipur, who added that where ever there is permission, it was obtained through dishonest means.
Despite the existence of legal norms to regulate them, about 500 brick kilns including 60 modern chimney brick kilns in the district have become a major cause of land degradation, soil erosion, temperature rise and air pollution. The brick kilns are mostly set up in agricultural land. They are also situated on river banks.
The kilns dig earth continuously to produce bricks from November to May. A brick kiln, spread over three to six acres of land, produces over ten lakh bricks annually by rendering the land unsuitable for agriculture, says an estimate. About 10 crores of bricks are produced annually in the district. A kiln uses about 300 tonnes of top soil annually to manufacture bricks.
Thus, hundreds of fertile riverside land have reportedly turned unsuitable for agriculture. Though there is ban on setting up brick kilns in agriculture land, it is blatantly violated. Besides, continuous digging of earth also weakens the riverbanks, threatening to change the course of the rivers, it added.
A kiln having a chimney reportedly uses about eight tons of wood every day during the brick making season. About 500 ordinary brick kilns without chimney are not doing less harms to the environment but now -a -days people prefer to use of bricks of modern chimney brick kilns as these bricks are stronger, said kiln owner Mohammed Amin of Balichandrapur.