Marble City turns into 'Nakli Kashmir,' but slurry keeps harming environment

Rajsamand, known as Rajasthan's 'Marble City', produces high-quality marble that is much sought after for its pure white colour, fine texture and durability. While marble has been a major business in Rajsamand, with about 1,000 gangsaws working in this southern district to cut marble stones into slabs, marble waste, particularly the slurry generated in the process, remains a major environmental issue, causing air and water pollution.

Slurry, which is a mixture of fine marble and water, is generated during the processing and polishing of marble. Although there have been several attempts to put slurry to gainful use such as making bricks out of it or using it in road construction, the efforts have not been successful so far. But the search is on.

In summers, the dried marble dust gets carried by the wind, causing air pollution. In the rainy season, the slurry is carried into waterbodies, causing water pollution. No solution for sustainable disposal of slurry has been found so far except creating dumping yards, which were earlier away from the city but have now become a part of it.

There are two major dumping yards of marble slurry in Rajsamand district-at Mokhampura and Pansun. While only white slurry is dumped at Mokhampura, all kinds of marble waste are deposited at Pansun.

"Around 40 bighas of land at Mokhampura for use as a dumping yard was allotted by Kelwa panchayat about 30 years ago. This yard is now overflowing with white marble slurry, posing massive pollution threat," said Ram Singh, a resident.

The white marble slurry dumping ground at Mokhampura, though, has found some unusual use for the waste and making some money, too. It has emerged as a hotspot for pre-wedding photo shoots. Couples from faraway cities like Ahmedabad flock to this site, which has come to be known as 'Nakli Kashmir' (fake Kashmir) for photo and video shoots because of the snow-like background the long stretches of marble slurry provide, creating the illusion of an exotic location.

When studio owners began to bring couples here for shootings, Rajsamand District Marble Cutter Association (RDMCA) started providing facilities like changing rooms and introduced a pass system.

"Now each shoot that lasts for about two hours costs Rs 2,100. The association, which mans this site, pays about Rs 1 lakh per month to the panchayat as lease money for use of the land," said Bhawar Singh, the site in-charge.

RDMCA president Nandalal Sadul said all efforts for the industrial reuse of the slurry have been unsuccessful so far. "With the ceramic industry now using slurry as a raw material, ceramic tile manufacturing units at Morbi in Gujarat have shown some interest," he added.

The association currently sells a truckload of slurry for just Rs 200. "It is a small relief as the slurry generation here is very high, and the quantity required by the ceramic industry is too small in comparison," said Sadul.