Driving the rural streets of India, a common sight is massive sand-filled trucks. With just a touch of research, it is quickly revealed that the trucks are carrying the product of illegal, indiscriminate sand mining operations. Uttrakhand, Kerala, and Delhi (Noida) are locales of sand mining in which our journey visited, but the prominence of river mining in Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu cannot be ignored. The significance of this mining is so great that people are willing to fast, and to die for the cause.
After a four month fast in protest of sand mining in the holy Ganges, Swami Nigamananda Saraswati died on June 13. His death is a warning. If reckless sand mining continues, the Ganges and the people whose lives and livelihoods are fueled by it will face serious consequences. The construction industry requires massive amounts of sand for its projects. Despite some legal framework prohibiting sand mining in most states, the industry gets most of the sand by dredging rivers’ earthen materials beyond a safe capacity. In almost every river where it is viable, the ‘sand mafia’ purge the depths for profitable sand, amounting to an illegal yearly turnover of $2.25 billion USD (Viju).
Despite its illegality, sand mining is perpetuated by various social and economic dilemmas. First, it brings revenue to state government and panchayats (community leaders), which paves the way for corruption and conflict. Thus, relationships between local politicians, contractors, and bureaucrats emerge to create a power nexus capable of deterring community-based resistance. The players in this nexus are infamously termed the’ sand mafia,’ by the Indian media.
The case of Maharashtra epitomizes this phenomenon. In September 2010, the Bombay High Court banned the extraction of sand, due to its adverse environmental effects and detriment to water supply. If this ruling had stuck, the real estate industry would have suffered a loss of $5.5 billion USD (Dredging Today). The state government would have lost royalties of $2.25 billion USD. Hence, unsurprisingly, the ban did not stick. In October 2010, just a month later, the ban was lifted in hopes of finding ‘a thorough regulatory policy for sand mining.’ Hence, sand mining in Maharashtra persists, in largely the same fashion it did prior to the ban.
The environmental reasons for this ban and others across India are numerous. Sand acts as an aquifer, and a natural carpet on the bottom of the river. Stripping this layer leads to downstream erosion, causing changes in channel bed and habitat type, as well as the deepening of rivers and estuaries, and the enlargement of river mouths (Ojos Negroes). As the river system lowers, local groundwater is affected, which leads to water scarcities aggravating agriculture and local livelihoods. In terms of legal measures, ground water shortages have been noted as the patent problem with river sand mining. Less considered in legal action, but centrally relevant, experts also note substantial habitat and ecological problems, which include “direct loss of stream reserve habitat, disturbances of species attached to streambed deposits, reduced light penetration, reduced primary production, and reduced feeding opportunities.” (Ojos Negroes)
The rivers in Kerala have been subject to significant such degradation, and serve as a good overview of the aforementioned problems. Major rivers such as the Pampa, Manimala, and Achankovil have been subject to such nondiscretionary dredging that there has been a sharp fall in ground water table levels. According to one study, indiscriminate mining has lowered the Pampa an average of three to four meters, and up to six meters in some areas (Nair). This has serious implications on water availability. By 2050, if sand mining persists, usable water in the Pampa would drop 2,537 cubic meters, water in the Achankovil would drop 459 cubic meters, and the Manimala would drop 398 cubic meters (Nair). This constitutes a serious problem for a state that has already seen climate shifts adversely affecting water abundance due to monsoon timings.
Dishearteningly, similar scenarios are evident in nearly every Indian state, irrespective of climate and ecology. Experts, activists, and many politicians realize the environmental problems rooted in sand mining, which results in legislation preventing mining. Despite legal barriers on exploitative sand mining, institutional framework and enforcement mechanisms are insufficient and mining persists. Noida has been plagued by such infrastructure failures, but demonstrates grains of hope at both the enforcement and bureaucratic levels.
As with all other states containing sand resources, Noida faces the threat of sand exploitation by the ‘sand mafia’. Illegal mining occurs in 14 villages of Noida, 22 villages of Greater Noida and eight villages of Jevar (Aradhak). According to State District Magistrate (SDM) Vishal Singh, "We know it is important to keep a tab on them, but whenever something major happens in the district, the mafia take advantage of the shortage of police personnel and start mining.”(Aradhak)
On top of the aforementioned environmental problems, one article noted that Noida suffered a loss of fertility of 1,000 acres of land that surround mining activities on the banks of the Yamuna (Ardhak). Due to the intensity of the problem, Noida has established a “Special Mining Squad,” charged with the specific task of impeding and ultimately extricating Greater Noida from the sand mafia’s degradation. These squads have shown some success, but have faced armed response – i.e. being shot at – in contest to shutting down sand mafia operations. Though this method may prove effective in Noida, an affluent industrial area, it is less likely that smaller, rural, and less wealthy areas have the capacity to develop such a squad.
And even with enforcement officers, the sand mafia can be quite brutal. In Tamil Nadu, both the media and government vigorously attack illegal miners. According to the Chennai India times, a state-run inspection revealed a complex, organized, and efficient network, enacting mining in Kerala and Tamil Nadu (Karthick) This network operates so far outside the legal boundaries that in the last ten years there have been numerous reports of the blatant murders of revenue officers (Illangovan) This type of organized, indiscriminate mining could be the death note not just for revenue officers, but also for ecological systems, habitats, and livelihoods.
The profit paradigm of resource exploitation has dominated India for too long. It is time for a shift away from corporate control, protecting not just Saraswati’s sacred Ganga, but also all the waterways in India, which feed bodies, livelihoods and ecosystems. The Swami’s death and the deaths of government officials, police offers, and other protesters must be a wakeup call that sand mining is a serious reality that warrants equally serious regulation and enforcement.
Works Cited
Aradhak, Purusharth. "Illegal Sand Mining Thrives in Noida." The Times of India [New Delhi] 10 June 2011. Print.
Aradhak, Purusharth. "Illegal Sand Mining Thrives in Noida." The Times of India [New Delhi] 10 June 2011. Print.
Illangovan, R. "Government Cracks the Whip on Sand Mafia." The Hindu [Chennai] 16 Dec. 2004. Print.
Karthick S. "As Sand Slips Away, Govt Zeroes on Kingpins." The Times of India [Chennai] 23 June 2011. Print.
Nair, G.K. "Indiscriminate Sand Mining Creates Water Shortage in Kerala." The Hindu Business Line. 1 Feb. 2011. Web. <http://www.thehindubusinessline.in/2009/05/05/stories/2009050551071700.htm>.
"Sand Mining Ban Causes Concern." Dredging Today. Rediff, 5 Oct. 2010. Web. <http://www.dredgingtoday.com>.
"Sand Mining Facts." Three Issues of Sustainable Management in the Ojos Negros Valley, Baja California, Mexico, Victor Miguel Ponce, Coquillo, Drought, Sand Mining. Ojos Negros Research Group, 02 Nov. 2004. Web. <http://threeissues.sdsu.edu/three_issues_sandminingfacts01.html>.
Viju, B. "Raiding the River." The Times of India [New Delhi] 19 June 2011. Print.