Mafias plunder India's sands

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The yellow river-sand is turning out to be no less than gold. There is a veritable ‘sand-rush’ and those who have been able to plunder have become millionaires overnight. The demand for the stuff is seemingly insatiable with construction lobby willing to go to any length to get at it. The mostly black-money financed construction has witnessed unabated, hectic rise all over the country and added to that are the government

Illegal sand mining in NOIDA

infrastructure projects. Reports are coming from the far corners of the country about the loot that is going on of sand from river beds, their banks and coastal beaches. The diminutive sand even assumed the role of currency and played skewed “sand for Vote” role in Moga during the elections to the Punjab legislative assembly earlier this year. The problem is so acute that environmentalists have asked the government for conducting research to find an alternative for sand. Well organised mafias under the patronage of the powerful politicians are hard at work excavating mostly illegal sands for sand-hungry builders and construction companies. Whosoever comes in their way is brought to harm – sometimes with fatal consequences.

The most recent example is that of Durga Sakti Nagpal, a young Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer functioning as Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM) of the New Okhla Industrial Development Area (NOIDA) of Uttar Pradesh (UP) who took on the sand mafia operating in the flood plains of Yamuna River. A local member of the UP legislative assembly having substantial interests in the operations brazenly claimed to have had the SDM placed under suspension within 41 minutes at the dead of night on the orders of the chief minister. A frightful storm is blowing as a result. Not only the bureaucracy is up in arms, the local ruling party has even taken on the Centre for its moves to intervene in the matter.

 The SDM was lucky since the mafia did not harm her physically. Soon after her suspension a crusader against illegal sand mining in the same district was shot dead while asleep at home.  Earlier in March 2012 a young and brave Indian Police Service officer was crushed under the wheels of a tractor-trolley loaded with illegally mined sand from River Chambal in Morena district of Madhya Pradesh (MP). Numerous reports

Illegal sand mining in Adilabad, Maharashtra

have appeared in the press about illegal sand mining operations in UP, MP, Maharashtra, Andhra, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Himachal, Uttarakhand, etc. where the mafia have displayed violent proclivities. Two prominent environmentalists of Mumbai have written to the Minister for Environment & Forests (MoEF) that well organised mafias are prepared to kill public-spirited individuals if they interfered with their illegal activities. Law enforcement authorities are helpless as the mafias have intimate links with politicians in power as exemplified by the NOIDA incident where the ruling party is all set to fight it out with the Centre.

Illegal sand mining is a very profitable business. In the NOIDA, Greater NOIDA and Ghaziabad areas the construction activity is progressing at a frenetic pace and the realtors are always in the lookout for cheaper sand. The mafias are concentrating on the mines of Yamuna, Hindon and Ganges Rivers. No royalty is paid on the sand illegally excavated or dredged from the beds of these rivers. While a dumper-full of licensed sand is worth Rs. 20000/- the same volume of unlicensed sand is sold for half that amount to the realtors.

Besides if they have permit for one, they land ten dumpers or trucks earning huge profits. It is the builders who benefit most from illegal sand and with their deep nexus with the powerful and influential politicians regardless of their political colour are able to negate the rule of law. In UP, for instance, the current government of Samajwadi Party and its predecessor Bahujan Samaj Party, both turned a blind eye to the ongoing plunder of sand from ecologically sensitive flood plains of the State’s major rivers. They have, over the years, brazenly ignored the orders of the Supreme Court that mining of minor minerals – sand being one – from even less than 5 hectares of land would require environmental clearance.

Mining in Goa

In their hunger for power and riches the politicians and their allies in the underworld have developed only contempt for environmental protection. They consider it to be an obstruction in the pursuit of their activities that are nefarious by any standard. But none can touch them as they happen to wield power and influence. This situation obtains virtually in every state of the Union. In Maharashta illegal sand mining has been declared a crime under the tough Maharashtra Control on Organised Crime Act and yet despite ceaseless denudation of sands from the state’s coastline adversely impacting its morphology and bio-diversity not one mafioso has been nabbed – such is their clout. In MP the chief minister’s own brother is reportedly active in illegal mining in River Narmada.

One wonders whether the Ministry at the Centre and governments in the states appreciate the serious damage that is being caused to the river systems in the country by unchecked sand-mining. According to experts, reckless mining activities can cause physical harm to the river or stream by erosion of channel bed and banks, increase in channel gradient, and change in channel morphology. These impacts may cause the undercutting and collapse of river banks,  the loss of adjacent land and/or structures, upstream erosion as a result of an increase in channel slope and changes in flow velocity, and downstream erosion due to increased carrying capacity of the stream, downstream changes in patterns of deposition, and changes in channel bed and habitat type.

Mining with heavy equipment like dredgers for removal of channel substrate results in re-suspension of streambed sediment, clearance of vegetation, and stockpiling on the streambed. All these have ecological impacts leading to direct loss of stream habitat, disturbances of species hosted by streambed deposits, reduced light penetration and reduced feeding opportunities, adversely impacting the native riverine

biodiversity. That the failure of men and machines in preventing oil leaks, in uncontrolled dumping or stockpiling of overburden cause poisoning of aquatic organisms and fouling up of the water quality need hardly be emphasised.

Sand mining in Rajahmundri, Andhra Pradesh

Excessive sand-mining from rivers is also accompanied by plummeting ground water tables in the riparian zones. This has happened in Kerala, Andhra and several other states and may also well happen in such zones of Yamuna, Hindon and Ganges, rendering agriculture a losing proposition raising the question of livelihood in the areas.

With outright and brazen breaches of the orders of the Apex Court in regard to licensing of mining of minor minerals in less than 5 hectares of land only after environmental clearance the National Green Tribunal, thankfully, has also got into the act in reinforcing the orders. Hopefully, the states will wake up and enforce the extant orders and decisions or else India’s rivers might suffer irreparable harm subjecting the people to untold privations.

Photos: from the Internet

Unregulated sand mining threatens Indian rivers

Many in India, perhaps, are not able to foresee how lack of governance, virtually, in every sphere is going to hit them in not too distant future. Take for instance mining. Illegal mining of mineral resources, with generous help of political and bureaucratic big wigs, is so rampant that not only are the country’s precious natural resources being purloined in a big way, its forests are being clean-felled, land degraded and its rivers threatened with extinction.

Mining of sand, for instance, is depleting the waters of the rivers. While the construction boom fuels the demand, weak governance and rampant corruption are facilitating uncontrolled and illegal mining of sand and gravel in the rivers, threatening their very existence. What is happening is nothing but suicidal. This mindless, unrestrained and unregulated activity is posing threats of widespread depletion of water resources which may lead to avoidable food shortages and hardships for the people.

Sand is vital for sustenance of rivers. Geologists know that uncontrolled sand mining from the riverbed leads to the destruction of the entire river system. If sand and gravel is extracted in quantities higher than the capacity of the river to replenish them, it leads to changes in its channel form, physical habitats and food webs – the river’s ecosystem. The removal of sand from the river bed increases the velocity of the flowing water, the distorted flow-regime eventually erodes the river banks. Beside these on-site effects the off-site effects are also quite lethal. Sand acts like a sponge, which helps in recharging the water table; its progressive depletion in the river is accompanied by sinking water tables in the nearby areas, adversely impacting people’s daily lives, even their livelihood.

River sand, therefore, is vital for human wellbeing. That, however, is yet to be appreciated, for instance, in the central Indian province of Madhya Pradesh where unscrupulous contractors, with more than willing co-operation of the corrupt government officials, are emptying the river beds of sand. Whether it is the major rivers like Narmada, Chambal, Betwa or Wainganga or numerous rivulets and streams all are being ravaged for their sands. The state Government has wittingly lent a helping hand for the loot. Overstepping its authority, it exempted mining of sand and gravel from any kind of environmental clearances under Rule 49 of its Minor Mineral Rules notified in 1996, neutralising the provisions made in several Central legislations on conservation of environment and mineral resources. None of these central legislations has delegated powers to the states to amend any of their provisions. Worse, a section of the contentious Rule authorises the government to exempt any mine to operate without obtaining environmental clearance. Hundreds of lessees of the Mining Corporation of Madhya Pradesh are, therefore, merrily excavating sand from the State’s rivers, generally, disregarding all environmental regulations. Mercifully, Ajay Dube, the social activist secretary of “Prayatna”, a reputed environmental advocacy group, has approached the State High Court for quashing of the unconstitutional exemptions so that indiscriminate mining of sand could be put a stop to. After all, the State’s water security is at stake, as indeed its food security.

The southern state of Kerala, likewise, is experiencing the effects of the veritable loot. Its second longest river Bharathappuzha has become a victim of indiscriminate sand mining. The journal India Together recently reported, “Despite numerous prohibitions and regulations, sand mining continues rapidly on the riverbed of the Bharathapuzha. Water tables have dropped dramatically, and a land once known for its plentiful rice harvest now faces scarcity of water...In the villages and towns around the river, groundwater levels have fallen drastically, and wells are almost perennially dry”. Last year Palakkad, a district largely dependent on the river for drinking water, saw “one of its worst droughts in its history”. Instead of a free-flowing river that it was, Bharathappuzha had no water in it. Unregulated sand mining during the past decade has all but devoured the riverbed. With the sand cover gone, shrubs and acacia groves have cropped up in the middle of the river. A source of drinking water for about 700,000 people in 175 villages and several towns, Bharathppuzha is rapidly ceasing to be so. Meetings and rallies are held on its dry bed while drinking water in the neighbourhood has become scarce. Palakkad, known as the “The rice bowl of Kerala”, is on the threshold of losing that sobriquet.

Similar has been the fate of the Pamba River, Kerala’s third longest river. For its association with the Sabarimala shrine it is considered sacred and is also known as “Dakshin Ganga”. That, however, has not saved it from meeting the same fate as that of Bharathappuzah. In fact, reckless sand-mining has reduced the water-holding capacity of several rivers in the state. They become trickles soon after the monsoons only to dry up later. Kerala may, in all probability, lose its green mantle and may not be able to live up to its epithet of “God’s own country”.

Little up north , the supposedly sacred Godavari River, flowing from West to East over the Deccan plateau, has been mined so badly for its sands that its basin in the Marathwada region of Maharashtra State has almost dried up. In Aurangabad district, villagers have recounted to “Down to Earth”, the well-known environmental periodical, how Godavari would be brimming with water until only about two years ago, but now it has considerably shrunk, so much so that scores of villages in Paithan tehsil have to get water through tankers. This is so despite the existence of the nearby big Jaikwadi dam. Wells have dried up and farmers have to have water piped in over long distances. Rocks jut out in the mercilessly excavated banks of the Godavari near Wadwali village, the resident farmers of which had threatened to commit self-immolation in front of the district collector’s office. According to rules, sand can be excavated only up to a depth of one metre but greedy contractors, most without permits, in connivance with officials, dig up to as much as seven metres. Rules and regulations are seldom observed. It is kind of free for all.

The instances cited above are only illustrative. The malaise is pretty widespread as many other states, like Gujarat, Karnatak, Tamilnadu, etc. are also victims of unchecked illegal sand-mining the consequences of which, needless to say, are very serious. Rivers of India are already seriously sick. Polluted by industrial and urban effluents, they are also victims of deforestation in their catchments, sequential damming and degradation because of unchecked sand-mining on their banks and beds. Besides, erratic monsoons, induced by changing climate is taking its toll, adversely impacting their capacity to sustain the current levels of economic activities, especially agricultural productivity.

The Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh, has already warned that the country has to snap out of its false sense of food-security. Perhaps, he also needs to advise the states to take necessary care of their rivers and other water resources so that the country is prevented from being overtaken by desertification, famine and hunger.