Mining

These satellite images of Indian rivers highlight environmental impacts of sand mining

In India, sand mining grew after the rapid urbanisation brought on by the economic liberalisation in the 1990s

 
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By Pulaha Roy, Siddharth Agarwal, Kumar Anirvan
Published: Monday 24 April 2023
Photo: iStock

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. 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. 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.

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.

Haryana’s mining laws say that no operations are allowed “up to a distance of five times the span of a bridge on up-stream side and ten times the span of such bridge on down-stream side”. This means that a 572.9 m-long bridge, as seen in Yamunangar district, should have no excavation activities for at least some 2,864 m upstream (with a longer gap downstream). However, anaylsis of satellite images indicate artificial bunds in multiple points along the region that is to be out of bounds.

Madhya Pradesh has banned mechanised sand mining operations, including use of earthmovers, along the Narmada. But images of the riverbank in Sehore district detect earthmovers in at least three locations. The total mining area in this image spans over 50 hectares, which means clearance for projects here, irrespective of individual mine size, must come from the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, as per the Environmental Impact Assessment Notification, 2006. However, publicly available details of projects in this area show clearances were given by the state—a violation of central law.

The National Chambal Sanctuary is a protected area along the Chambal river, comprising parts of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh. Satellite images show signs of sand mining near Dholpur bridge connecting Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan. While the Madhya Pradesh government has allowed mining in the area since 2022, its proximity to the bridge is a violation—state law says the distance must be 200 m. Mining in the sanctuary has been in the news for creating ecological havoc for the gharials and turtles that live in the sanctuary.This first appeared in Down To Earth magazine (April16-30, 2023)

 

Sand Beach sand mining Narmada Valley Mining Reclamation Illegal mining Illegal sand mining ban Mining Chambal India
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