Driven by greed, audacious sand mafia kills with impunity
Driven by greed, audacious sand mafia kills with impunity
My adrenaline's pumpin'
I got my stereo bumpin'
I'm 'bout to kill me somethin'
A police stopped me for nuthin'!
—From the song “Cop Killer” by Body Count)
Did a Haryana DSP die in vain?
Taoru DSP Surendra Singh was killed by a mining mafia near Nuh's Pachgaon on 19 July. He was probing illicit mining. He was run over by a truck. His body was found in an open dumpster.
While he was just a few months away from retirement, his family grieves over their terrible loss.
The incident took place when Surendra Singh had gone to conduct a raid at Taoru Hill after receiving a tip-off about alleged illicit mining. An eyewitness said the DSP was standing near his official vehicle when he signalled the dumper driver, allegedly carrying illicit quarrying equipment, to stop. The driver mowed down the DSP.
The cold fact is how many really care about the business of illegal sand mining. It is driven by “sand greed.”
The shocking murder red flags the audacity of the mafia.
Can this illegal sand mining be stopped? Is enough being done by law enforcement? Is there alleged complicity at certain levels which makes the sand mafia even more powerful?
Sand mining in India has obliterated many lives. Activists, police officials and journalists who have probed local illegal sand mining issues have been killed.
Looking at the body count, between January 2019 and November 2020, at least 193 people were killed in connection with illegal sand-mining, the South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers and People estimated in a 2021 report. And as it happens in such reports, these are mere indicative numbers.
At least 95 were drowned in the large pits that sand mining leaves behind on river beds. Workers have also perished in the process of mining. Children, playing by the riverside, have died in droves while getting sucked into treacherous sand pits.
Another reason for such deaths is described as rash driving by trucks transporting the mined sand. Make no mistake the people behind the wheels would unhesitatingly run over a life if anyone dared to impede.
And the level of punishment meted out to those responsible is minuscule. It is a tragic saga with no hope in sight.
Cold statistics buttress the problem. But the solution still remains elusive as a ghost.
Constable Sonu Kumar Chaudhary in Agra was allegedly run over and killed by a tractor-trolley engaged by a local mining mafia for transporting illegally-mined riverbed sand. This happened on 8 November 2020.
The very same day, 26-year-old G Moses, a television journalist in Tamil Nadu, probing illegal sand mining, was hacked to death.
These names are a small part of the huge collateral damage being caused by an alleged heinous nexus of contractors, politicians, trade union leaders, panchayat (local officials) and revenue officials, and even cops.
Sand mining has India in its clutches; it isn’t a localised problem anymore.
It is prevalent in the Garo Hills in Meghalaya, the Sutlej in Punjab, Yamuna in Delhi, the Ganga in Haridwar, Urmil and Betwa in Bundelkhand, Kosi in Bihar, the Chambal and Narmada in Madhya Pradesh, Ojat in Gujarat, the Subarnarekha in Odisha, Musi in Telangana, Netravati and Phalguni rivers in Karnataka, Godavari and Krishna in Andhra Pradesh, and Cauvery in Tamil Nadu.
The Union environment ministry submitted a report before the Rajya Sabha saying there were 4.16 lakh cases of illegal mining recorded between 2013 and 2017. Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka accounted for the most number of cases.
Why is sand so precious?
As per publicly available information, the world uses 50 billion tonnes of sand and gravel every year, making it the planet’s second most-used resource after water.
The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) published a report giving 10 specific recommendations, including classifying sand as a ‘strategic resource’, mapping and monitoring sand resources and adopting laws and policies to counter sand greed.
A lot of this applies to India, where sand extraction is a major environmental problem. Sand mining, both legal and illegal, has destabilised river banks and rendered them more prone to floods. The demand for sand is driven by a construction boom.
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Miners, comprising local goons or powerful mafias, run the business to control sand extraction from rivers and coasts.
According to one estimate, the annual demand for sand in urban India alone was 60 million metric tonnes in 2019.
India is extracting sand faster than it can be replenished naturally.
According to a UNEP report published in 2018, India and China had the most “critical hotspots” where sand extraction was affecting rivers, lakes and coastlines to feed the ravenous construction boom.
Sand mining affects the natural environment in many ways. A 2010 study found that sand mining in three major rivers in central Kerala had caused the riverbanks to become unstable, increasing the flood frequency and intensity.
Removing sand can also lower water aquifers, erode beaches and destroy animal habitats.
So, what are the alternatives?
According to the 2018 UNEP report, sand is used as an aggregate for road bases and cement-based construction. This sand can be replaced by aggregating the derivatives of the incineration of solid municipal waste.
Interestingly, the 2022 UNEP report also suggests converting crop residue into building material — which can also help North India manage its stubble burning problem at the end of the rice season.
But the report also said it’s important to properly fund these alternatives.
India’s problems get exacerbated as it faces a sand shortage.
According to the Sand Mining Framework, 2018, the demand for sand in India is around 700 million tonnes (in 2017) and it is increasing at the rate of six-seven per cent annually.
Experts say government agencies need to work constantly on sand mining. And civil society too needs to step in. The malaise has left local people extremely vulnerable to floods, land loss, contaminated drinking water and crop damage.
So, how effective are the existing laws?
Every mining activity requires environmental clearances under several laws.
The environment ministry, with its ‘Enforcement & Monitoring Guidelines for Sand Mining 2020’, regulates sand mining and checks illegal mining. This was introduced four years later after a previous effort failed miserably.
The government has specific policies to govern sand mining and its ‘sustainable’ use. But it clearly needs more teeth and bite. Activists who have taken on the mafia have often endured vicious pushback from various quarters.
After all, who loves a whistle-blower when there is dough to be made from sand greed.
The author is CEO of nnis. Views expressed are personal.
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