Mined To Destruction

Sand is the second most exploited resource after water and the most mined material globally, as per the UN Environment Programme. Its extraction from riverbeds is often done without regard to the adverse impact on natural river ecology. In India, sand mining grew as a large and, in many cases, illegal industry after the rapid urbanisation brought on by the economic liberalisation in the 1990s

- Pulaha Roy, Siddharth Agarwal and Kumar Anirvan

While the country has sand mining laws in place, a lack of proper implementation and monitoring means that the riverbeds are constantly threatened. Pulaha Roy, along with Siddharth Agarwal and Kumar Anirvan, researchers with Kolkata-based non-profit Veditum India Foundation's sand mining platform, analyses satellite images of rivers across India to highlight the massive scale of ecological degradation due to sand mining and the open violation of mining laws.

MAY 15, 2022

BETWA

HAMIRPUR DISTRICT, UTTAR PRADESH

There is a clear distinction between the natural and disrupted flow of the Betwa river in Hamirpur district of Uttar Pradesh, caused by artificial bunds that spread over a 7-km stretch. Presence of sand trucks and earthmovers near the artificial bunds point to active sand mining operations. Such massive disruption to the natural flow of the river gives rise to several ecological impacts such as migration of aquatic species and adverse changes in the food chain.

MARCH 3, 2022

KEN

BANDA DISTRICT, UTTAR PRADESH

The Ken, which originates in Madhya Pradesh, also passes through Uttar Pradesh and merges with the Yamuna in Banda district. Here too, sand mining is marked along a nearly 5-km stretch through presence of trucks, earthmovers and bunds that disrupt the river's natural flow. The resultant ecological imbalance and environmental pollution, such as release of toxins from the damaged river bed, is grounds for premature termination of mining leases, as per state law.

OCTOBER 28, 2022

SON

ROHTAS DISTRICT, BIHAR