Authorities in the southern province of Hormozgan moved to stop unauthorized mining activity in Hormuz Island that had sparked a firestorm of protest on social media.
The island is a popular tourist destination in the Strait of Hormuz famed for its ochre, a red-colored earth pigment that has made miles of land look majestic.
“Regrettably, some people have used the [recent] holiday occasion to conduct mining at Hormuz Island’s mountains without a permit from Hormozagan’s Industries, Mining and Trade Organization and its Natural Resources and Watershed Management office,” the latter’s director , Omid Zakeri, said.
Prompt Action
“As soon as we learned of the news on social networks…, we dispatched forces to the extraction site to stop the operation,” Zakeri told ISNA.
The operation at the island’s Kouh-Sefid mountain, better-known locally as Kolah-Rostam, was reportedly aimed at supplying the construction materials for a planned coastal wall.
Similar attempts in the nearby Abu Musa Island had previously been halted in the face of growing public outcry.
Majid Vafadar, head of the Department of Environment’s office at Hormozgan, raised concern at a press conference earlier in the day about the environmental consequences of heavy resource extraction at the tiny Island.
“Hormuz is a small island with limited resources. Its tourist appeal is driven by its geological aesthetics and any change could adversely affect its potential for tourist attraction,” he said.
Legal Gap
Vafadar said his organization is opposed to the extraction of the island’s natural resources but lacks a statutory mandate to intervene and prevent mining “outside the protected areas”.
“The law does not allow the environment department to act directly to stop the mining operation, so it is not responsible. Mining at Hormuz’s mountains has no rational justification… The Industries, Mining and Trade Organization oversees the resource extraction affairs and the Natural Resources and Watershed Management Department is in charge of preservation.”
The land of colors, Hormuz Island, is located in the Persian Gulf, 5 km off the mainland, and southeast of Bandar Abbas, a major port and capital of Hormozgan.
