12 July 2006

Hillock Quarry



This photograph shows a large hillock spur in front of Arunachala. On the top of the spur there is a massive configuration of rock. It is this place which is home to a large colony of bonnet macaque monkeys, and also I suspect, from where our lonely exiled monkey friend (from yesterday's blog) hails from.

The tragedy here is two-fold: one, for the monkeys and the other for Arunachala devotees. The hillock spur is leased by a granite quarry which is harvesting stone from the hillock. On the face of the spur you can see differences in the colouration; these are the places where the granite was recently dynamited in order to break it up into smaller, more manageable pieces.

One had hoped that with the rapid urbanisation of this area the quarry would have, by now, discontinued its activities on this Arunachala spur. Unfortunately there is insufficient public and official interest to halt this sad desecration of both an Arunachala spur and also the home of a large group of monkeys.

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