Locals...alleged that the quarrying is not only noisy, punctuating daily lives in the surrounding villages with regular explosions, but more problematically, it’s also allegedly damaged farmlands, orchards, streams, roads and drains.

In August 2014, the residents submitted petitions with over 2,500 signatures to government departments. Another petition was submitted in December 2015, and a third was sent off in January 2016.

Local residents say they were never consulted about the project, and would have rejected it for fear of the environmental impacts had it been proposed to them.

...Long Life Aggregate Mining Company claims to have held a legal license to operate the quarry on 225 acres in the Kalama Mountain Forest Reserve since 2013. The company mines rocks for construction and road building.

Company officials said they have undertaken several projects for the betterment of the community, as well as steps to mitigate locals’ concerns about the affects of the mining.

“While there are people protesting against the company, there are also local residents who are cooperating with us for regional development,” said U Aung Thet Htay, the director of Long Life Aggregate Mining Company.

He added that following advice from the Forestry Department and the Environmental Conservation Department, the company has been building dikes to prevent sand and silt from choking nearby streams.

Long Life Aggregate Mining Company is one of nearly two dozen companies extracting rocks from Paung township...