21 aug 2014 Pushpa Jain

Mandsaur district forms the Northern projection of Madhya Pradesh. It lies between the parallels of 23 45’50” to 25 02’55” North latitude and between the meridians of 74 42’30”to 75 50’20” East longitude. The district extends for about 142 km. from North to South and 124 km. from east to West. The district lies on the Malwa plateau. The top cover consists of black cotton soil which is ideal for the cultivation of these crops. The flora of the district falls under the Central Indian mixed deciduous type. The climate is generally dry except in the Southwestern monsoon season. The major litho logical units are sandstones and shales with minor limestone units Pink and grey shale are exposed in Mandsaur and Malhargarh tehsils.These are soft and at places contains bands of white and pink clay. Sporadic occurrences of bands within the shale of the Delhi system are being extensively worked for making slate pencils. . There are about 116 slate pencil industries running mainly in these two tehsils.The shale stone ‘Binota Sedimentary Rock’ used for manufacturing slate pencil is excavated manually from mines and transported to the industrial site. The industry is run in poorly ventilated rooms with ten to fifteen workers. The manufacturing process is dry stone cutting method. The stones are cut into pieces by electrically operated machines. During this process a huge amount of dust is emitted which pollutes the working atmosphere. Dust is sucked by exhaust pumps and is thrown into the atmosphere by stacks. The height of the stack is about 10 to 12 feet. The dust is scattered in a large area through wind and gets deposited on all the aerial parts of the nearby vegetation and crops. The dust also gets deposited on the soil surface, thus altering its 2321-7871