The district administration sealed 16 illegal stone crusher units in Dharmasala block on Wednesday.
“The district administration has formed a special taskforce to close all the illegal stone quarries and crusher units. Many persons have been running illegal crushers and stone quarries by violating law. All the illegal quarry owners will be arrested soon,” said the district Collector.
The authorities have directed all the stone lifters to obtain environment clearance from the Forest Department before lifting stones, the Collector said.
“Many stone quarry mafias have been lifting stones near the famous Buddhist site of Udayagiri for which we stopped all the quarry works at Udayagiri,” added the Collector.