Bihar Sand Mining 2020: Ruining rivers; aggravating floods

July 22, 2020October 31, 2020 SANDRP4 Comments

{Feature image: Up to 300 trucks a day take their fill of sand at a mine on the Sone River in Bihar state. India’s construction boom is stripping large volumes of sand, a vital ingredient in concrete, from its rivers. Environmentalists say the extraction is unsustainable, harming local hydrology and wildlife. Paul Salopek}

The 2018 review of sand mining [i] for Bihar highlighted how mismanagement by govt and then National Green Tribunal (NGT) ban on sand mining in Ganga river, Son rivers particularly during monsoon months resulted in sand scarcity and soaring prices affected public and livelihoods of mining laborers.

The video report featuring local people revealed that illegal mining was causing floods in West Champaran by damaging embankments. Similarly, the report on Gaya mentioned sand mining among reasons behind increasing air pollution. The death of four kids by drowning into sand mine pits was shocking. This compilation presents the situation after 2018 so far.

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Uttarakhand govt must remove illegal bridge on Yamuna to prevent flood disaster

July 11, 2020July 23, 2020 SANDRP1 Comment

Locals of Vikas Nagar tehsil in Dehradun have shared revealing and disturbing images and videos of riverbed mining activities done in Yamuna river over past couple of months. Though in wake of ongoing monsoon the mechanized extraction of riverbed minerals (RBMs) has seen a halt since July 01, 2020, the miners have left an illegally made makeshift bridge on Yamuna river. And that’s cause of worry for local people.

“Since May we have been requesting local administration not to allow deep, in-stream and mechanized mining in Yamuna river compromising rivers flow as it could change river course and create damages during floods. But all our pleas fell on deaf ears”, says a local villager on the condition of anonymity.

He further says that, a causeway bridge built across river in the last week of May 2020 to transport the minerals has been left unattended which could lead to a flood disaster if not safely removed immediately.

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Hydropower · Landslide · Sikkim

Landslide in Sikkim damages NHPC’s Teesta V Dam Project

June 27, 2020July 3, 2020 SANDRP3 Comments

This photo is possibly the worst advertisement for a hydropower project with landslide rocks sitting on top of the dam. A massive landslide has severely damaged the 55 m high dam of the 510 MW Teesta Hydropower Project of NHPC, at 00.20 hours on June 27, 2020. This is a major blow to NHPC, considered India’s premier hydropower company. It’s also a major blow to the propaganda of International Hydropower Association, falsely pushing this very project as an example under IHA’s Hydropower Sustainability Assessment Protocol[i].

NHPC PR on June 28 afternoon said the landslide happened “at Dam Axis on left abutment hill side from a height of about 40 meter from Dam top NHPC Teesta-V Dam at Dikchu, East Sikkim. The access to Dam Control Room (DCR) as well as electrical connection to Dam top was cut-off due to this slide.” The electricity supply was restored about 9 hours later. (https://www.facebook.com/1764846020501239/posts/2689927154659783/)

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Dams · Hydropower

Vyasi Hydro is draining muck and Rs. 40 lakh geo jute work into Yamuna

June 24, 2020June 24, 2020 SANDRP2 Comments

During the night of June 20, 2020 pre-monsoon showers left series of gully formations on one of the muck dump sites of the under construction 120 MW Vyasi Hydro Electric Project (HEP) in Hathiyari area of Vikas Nagar tehsil, Dehradun district in Uttarakhand. Huge amount of muck washed down into Yamuna River, exposing the credibility of the Uttarakhand Jal Vidyut Nigam Ltd. (UJVNL), the developer of Vyasi HEP.

Local people said that since June 2019, the UJVNL has spent over Rs. 40 lakh on geo jute and hydro seeding (grass slope protection) work at Hathiyari muck dumping yard. The project has already missed several deadlines, the work is far from complete. The careless handling of muck generated during the construction of 2.7 km long, 7-m dia tunnel in last eight years has added -+to the woes of local people and Yamuna river.

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Dams · DRP News Bulletin

DRP: 08 June 2020: Banda Satyagaraha shows tip of the Sandberg

June 8, 2020March 21, 2026 SANDRPLeave a comment

Feature image: Women in Banda performing Jal Satyagrah against illegal sand mining in Ken river. (PARI)

Sand mining menace has been a very dark spot on India’s governance. It affects not just the river beds or flood plains, but also water security, livelihood security, biodiversity, groundwater recharge among many other aspects. Banda Satyagarah provides a striking picture to highlight this issue, but the worrying fact is that we have no real sustained positive story on this front. Even major interventions by the highest judiciary has completely failed to make any major dent on ground.

SANDRP has been bringing out statewise updates on sand mining issues for several years now as we continue to do this year too, with the link to Kerala sand mining 2020 overview can be found below. These overviews make a rather dismal readind state after state, year after year. Occasionally we get stories like the NOIDA collector Durga Shakti Nagpal fighting sand miners in 2013 or 17 year girl from Kerala awakening us in 2018 or Sandhya Ravishankar getting Goenka award for exposing the Sand mining nexus in Tamil Nadu in 2019 or now the Banda women waking us up to this dark reality. Will we wake up to our collective failure in dealing with this SANDBERG?

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Dams · DRP News Bulletin

DRP: 25 May 2020: Review Environment Clearance Approval for Etalin Project

May 25, 2020March 19, 2026 SANDRPLeave a comment

This letter from SANDRP to MoEF and ETC on Etalin Project highlights how poor has been the EIA and E-flows reports of the Etalin Project and how flawed has been the Environmental Appraisal Process by the EAC. It also shows the shoddy Dibang Basin study for Cumulative Impact Assessment cum Carrying Capacity Study, shockingly done by the same consultant that also did the Etalin EIA, showing clearly that MoEF, EAC and CWC, all of whom were involved in the process, do not understand what is conflict of interest. The E flows study done by the CIFRI (Central Inland Fisheries Research Institute) does not even provide the list of fish they found in the Etalin project area! And shockingly, the EAC approved the biggest ever hydropower project of India based on such shoddy documents. The Environment Clearance approval needs to be reviewed, the EIA, E-flows and Dibang Basin CIA needs to be rejected and fresh studies need to be commissioned. https://sandrp.in/2020/05/23/open-letter-to-moef-river-valley-eac-review-recommendation-to-grant-ec-to-etalin-hep/ (23 May 2020)

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Dams · DRP News Bulletin

DRP: 18 May 2020: Signs of Impending Dam Floods in SW Monsoon 2020?

May 18, 2020March 18, 2026 SANDRPLeave a comment

These are rather ominous signs. As per the latest reservoir storage bulletin of Central Water Commission dated May 14, 2020, the 123 reservoirs monitored by CWC has massive, 64.6 BCM (Billion Cubic Meters) in live storage capacity, which is about 165% of the capacity on same date last year and average of last ten years, even as monsoon is just weeks away. Most dams known to create DAM INDUCED FLOODS in the past, including Bhakra dams (we wrote about it earlier this month: https://sandrp.in/2020/05/07/are-we-ready-to-use-more-water-from-snow-melt-in-indus-basin-this-year/), Narmada dams, Odisha and W Bengal dams (Cyclone AMPHAN is going to bring a lot of water here in next few days, even before the monsoon), Krishna basin dams, Cauvery basin dams, Bansagar and Gandhi Sagar Dams, and Kerala dams among others. All these dams have above average storage situation.

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Rivers · Sand Mining

Why indiscriminate river bed mining is wrong, dangerous and unethical

May 17, 2020May 17, 2020 SANDRP2 Comments

Guest Blog by Manoj Misra

Uttarakhand government is reportedly keen on taking up widespread river bed mining to generate around Rs 750 crore as revenue during 2020-21. More states anxious to recover revenues lost to ‘lockdowns’ due to COVID19 pandemic might also follow suit. Such indiscriminate actions would be unnatural, wrong, dangerous and even unethical. Continue reading “Why indiscriminate river bed mining is wrong, dangerous and unethical” →

Dams · Sand Mining

Yamuna facing illegal, in-stream mining during lockdown

May 17, 2020 SANDRP2 Comments

In April May 2020, local people and media reports have highlighted riverbed mining practices going on in the Yamuna river impacting river eco-system and riparian communities in gross violation of lock down norms during the Covid 19 crisis.

The first case is reported from Yamuna Nagar district, Haryana on April 30, 2020 by Times of India, where miners had created a bund across the river in the Gumthala-Jathlana area impending the natural flow of the river.

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Dams · DRP News Bulletin

DRP: 11 May 2020: Jindal accepts Etalin HEP is unviable!

May 11, 2020March 18, 2026 SANDRP1 Comment

This must be the defining (and predictable, this was the lead story in our DRP NB of April 27, 2020, see: https://sandrp.in/2020/04/27/drp-nb-27-april-2020-for-whom-is-this-unviable-etalin-project-being-pushed/) moment in the campaign to save the Dibang Valley now from the proposed 3097 MW Etalin Hydropower Project. The CEO of Jindal Power Ltd has said in so many words that project is NOT an attractive investment, they will struggle to find buyers for the costly power and only support from government can help make the project viable. The CEO seemed to suggest that they would be happy to sell the project to NHPC or form a joint venture with NHPC to get the govt funding for the project. Again completely on predictable line. The question then is why should government spend previous public money on such an unviable project?

So the question remains the same, the one we asked on April 27, 2020: For whom is this unviable Etalin Project being pushed?

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