Environmental impact assessment (EIA) of hard rock quarrying in a tropical river basin-study from the SW India.

The increase in demand of building stones and construction-grade sand has resulted in aggressive hard rock quarrying in many parts of the world. The problems are to be evaluated in detail for the judicious use of resources on the one hand and ensuring health of the ecosystems on the other. The present study aims to evaluate the impact of hard rock quarrying on one of the important twin - river basins in SW India, the Netravati-Gurpur river basin, which hosts the fast developing urban centre, the Mangalore city.