Tamil Nadu Sand Mining 2018: Story of Nexus exposed by a brave Journalists

February 17, 2019February 17, 2019 SANDRPLeave a comment

Brave Journalists exposes the Nexus supporting illegal sand mining in Tamil Nadu

Reporter honoured for exposing illegal mining On January 4, 2019, Sandhya Ravishankar was conferred Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism Award for her reportage on illegal beach sand mining in Tamil Nadu. https://www.thenewsminute.com/article/news18-editor-m-gunasekaran-becomes-1st-tamil-journalist-bag-ramnath-goenka-award-94522 (5 Jan. 2019)

Journalist stalked after reports on sand mafia Sandhya Ravishankar, Chennai-based journalist alleges multiple attempts to stalk and intimidate her in the recent past after she wrote a series of reports on the sand mafia. She is also fighting defamation cases. https://www.firstpost.com/india/chennai-based-journalist-sandhya-ravishankar-alleges-stalking-intimidation-after-reports-on-sand-mining-mafia-5295131.html (1 Oct. 2018)

Explosive reports on illegal beach sand mining in Tamil Nadu by Sandhya Ravi Shankar: Her report first person singular on Jan 31, 2017 provides blow by blow account of how the nexus involved in illegal sand mining was exposed. (https://thewire.in/culture/beach-sand-cartel, https://thewire.in/tag/beach-sand-mining)

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Sand Mining

Karnataka Sand Mining 2018: Hopeless, But Action Packed!

February 13, 2019February 13, 2019 SANDRP1 Comment

Karnataka is one of the leading states to witness the devastating effects of rampant sand mining. Between 2015 and 2018, the state has officially registered 20,779 cases of illegal sand mining, and 9,599 FIRs.

The state govt is receiving approximately Rs 150 crore per year as royalty from legitimate sand mining. As per estimates, the state govt is losing around Rs 200 crore per year due to illegal sand mining.

According to cement manufacturing companies’ data, around 18 million tonnes (MT) of cement is sold in the state every year. The cement-sand mix ratio is either 1:4 or 1:6 (four or six bags of sand per cement bag). Even if 1:4 ratio is taken, 72 MT of sand is approximately used in the state every year.

The official data from the Department of Mines and Geology shows that from the blocks permitted by it, a total quantity of 30 MT of sand (from all types of blocks – river sand, patta land, blocks allocated to govt departments, and manufactured sand) is produced in the state. Thus, there is a difference of at least 42 MT sand compared to the cement sold in the state.

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DRP News Bulletin

DRP: 11 Feb 2019: Questions over legitimacy of Dam Bachao Abhiyaan

February 11, 2019February 26, 2026 SANDRPLeave a comment

The Dam Bachao Abhiyaan has been coming up in various forms. They blame the upstream water use in the catchment for dams not filling up. The catchment area could be using the water through groundwater (e.g. Hussain Sagar in Hyderabad), Johads (e.g. Sahibi catchment in Alwar), Tanks (e.g. Cauvery catchment in Karnataka), or check dams (e.g. Gandhisagar catchment in Madhya Pradesh, Bisalpur and Ramgarh catchment in Rajasthan), the latest episode reflected in the news below.

One key question that is never answered is, does the construction of dam extinguish all the rights of the catchment area to harvest and use any water for even basic needs and livelihoods? Does the very existence of the dam make all such water use in the catchment illegitimate? What about the right to water and livelihood of the catchment area? Should dam filling be so sacrosanct as to not allow any legitimate water use in the catchment? Hope the court and the government resolves these issues. Hope there is debate on this to decide in which circumstances there will be legitimacy to such Dam Bachao Abhiyaan.

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Sand Mining

Madhya Pradesh Sand Mining 2018: Unprecedented Violence by Sand Mafia

February 8, 2019February 13, 2019 SANDRP1 Comment

Madhya Pradesh is one of the worse affected states as far as illegal sand mining is concerned. Over the years unsustainable sand mining has caused great damage to Narmada and its tributaries. The Ken, Betwa, Sindh, Chambal and Son rivers which join Yamuna and Ganga rivers has also been facing severe threats from ongoing illegal sand extraction.

Even in 2018, there was no significant improvement in this regard. There were attacks on govt officials and media persons for exposing illegal sand mining. The state govt failed to stop the illegal sand extraction.

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Sand Mining

Uttar Pradesh Sand Mining 2018: Key NGT orders slap for MoEF

February 7, 2019February 13, 2019 SANDRP1 Comment

RIVERBED MINING REPORTS

Disturbed by mining, man jumps in front of CM convoy One can just imagine the distress and anguish building against State Govt inactions over illegal sand mining in common people. In an attempt to draw the state govt’s attention towards the illegal sand mining, a man on Dec. 29, 2017 jumped in front of CM Yogi Adityanath’s convoy in Lucknow.

The man identified as Shyamji Mishra wanted to draw the attention towards the illegal river bed being done in Sonebhadra “under the patronage of BJP’s Sardar legislator and BJP’s district president.” He had earlier tried to meet the CM Yogi Adityanath a couple of times, but unable to convey his message the man was compelled to take this step. http://indianexpress.com/article/india/watch-video-man-jumps-in-front-of-uttar-pradesh-cm-yogi-adityanath-convoy-in-lok-bhawan-lucknow-5005359/ (30 Dec. 2017)

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Sand Mining

Gujarat Sand Mining 2018: Can Technology alone help Stop Illegal Sand Mining?

February 1, 2019February 13, 2019 SANDRPLeave a comment

GOVERNMENT EFFORTS

Auction in, 185 mining applications cancelled in Rajkot With the Gujarat Minor Mineral Concession Rules, 2017 coming into force, paving the way for public auction, the Rajkot District Collector, in Feb. 2018 declared 185 applications seeking lease concessions for mining sand, black trap and building limestone in the district ineligible. Continue reading “Gujarat Sand Mining 2018: Can Technology alone help Stop Illegal Sand Mining?” →

DRP News Bulletin

DRP: 28 Jan 2019: Climate Change Poses Multiple Threats to India: Does Our Governance Care?

January 28, 2019February 26, 2026 SANDRPLeave a comment

This week multiple reports warned of how India is already facing climate change impacts, how the groundwater, India’s water lifeline could be under threat under climate change, how India’s monsoon, the other water lifeline of India is under threat.

In fact, we should be bracing up for the drought that the summer will bring, but as yet there is no signs of any preparedness or plans.

The Dam floods in Indonesia and the Brazil’s disaster due to breach of mine tailings dam should be additional warnings, but our Dam Safety Bill that is before the Parliament does not recognise either of them.

The World wetlands day 2019 later this week has slogan of: “We are not powerless against climate Change… stop draining wetlands”, connecting climate change and wetlands. But the news from Indian wetlands governance is scary.

The day before the World Wetlands Day the Vote on Accounts will be presented before the Parliament as full budget cannot be presented in light of forthcoming Parliament elections. But is there any hope that either the Budget or the elections will deal with the climate change or the environment issue with any sense of seriousness?

The iconic Ardh Kumbh event is going on, but the govt has paid no attention to the fast by Swami Atmabodhanand, even after the death of Prof GD Agarwal for the same cause of Ganga.

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Sand Mining

Rajasthan: SC Banned Riverbed Mining through 2018: Centre & State Show No Concern

January 27, 2019February 13, 2019 SANDRPLeave a comment

On November 16, 2017, the Supreme Court (SC) of India, prohibited 82 large lease holders from mining sand and stone activities in absence of scientific replenishment study. The ban continued all through the year of 2018 and so were the incidents of illegal sand mining and violent attacks on police officials.

The ban has reportedly hampered some development projects. The prices of sand has increased. Meanwhile the mining department is seen making efforts in exploring Manufactured Sand (M-Sand) as an alternative though it seems there is not much success as yet.

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Sand Mining

Punjab Sand Mining 2018 Overview: SAD SAGA OF STATE FAILURE

January 25, 2019February 27, 2019 SANDRP2 Comments

SANDRP has been preparing and presenting the annual overview of sand mining sector for past three years. The issue of illegal sand mining is growing significantly adversely impacting the rivers and dependent communities. The respective governments are also under pressure to regulate the riverbed mining. There is noticeable increase in court cases and judicial interventions.

This year, we are presenting the overview in a state wise format for some key states where the issues are more intense. We start with Punjab state.

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DRP News Bulletin

DRP: 21 Jan 2019: NGT Asks For Audit of Pollution Control Regulation, But Fails on EIA

January 21, 2019February 26, 2026 SANDRPLeave a comment

Two interesting orders from National Green Tribunal (NGT) marked important developments on water-environment issues this week. NGT asking for PERFORMANCE AUDIT of pollution Control Mechanism is indeed long overdue necessity, considering the complete, abject failure of the pollution control mechanism in India. The hopes of effective action, like in the past, however, were dashed since CPCB, which is PART OF THE PROBLEM has been asked to do the audit. An independent audit, in addition to one possibly by CAG may have helped. https://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Delhi/ngt-slams-state-pollution-bodies/article26008687.ece (17 Jan. 2019)

Whatever positive signs were available by this order were further dashed by another NGT order in which it declared that EIAs (Environmental Impact Assessment) reports are already taking climate change into account, while the tribunal dismissed a petition asking that all development activities be screened/ regulated keeping climate change in mind.

This is totally WRONG contention. Just to illustrate, SANDRP has been pointing out to the EAC, MoEF and the developers how the EIAs of dams and hydropower projects are ignoring the climate change related issues and impacts. In response the consultants and developers have responded, approved by the silent or spoken nods by the EAC and MoEF that these were not even part of their TORs! One only wishes NGT was most discerning before making such claims and would have gone through a few EIAs to see if at all EIAs are dealing with these issues with any rigour or credibility. https://www.business-standard.com/article/pti-stories/climate-change-already-covered-under-environment-impact-assessment-ngt-119011600897_1.html (16 Jan. 2019)

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