Sand robbery, illegal sand mining in Sone river and over loading in Koilwar-Babura stretch, Bhojpur

To

Shri Shishir Sinha
Mines Commissioner-cum-Principal Secretary
Department of Mines & Geology
Government of Bihar
Patna

Date: February 18, 2015

Subject- Sand robbery, illegal sand mining in Sone river and over loading in Koilwar-Babura stretch, Bhojpur

Sir,

With reference to the joint letter (Gyapank:3536/M) of Chief Secretary and Director General of Police dated 19/09/204 to all the DMs and SPs, this is to draw your urgent attention towards rampant violation of three meter depth guidelines as per Sand Mining Policy 2013 for carrying out sand mining in river bed and flood plains of Son river without any development, reconstruction and rehabilitation work in the vicinity of Koilwar-Babura stretch, Bhojpur. For past few months the road faces constant traffic congestion from overloaded tractors carrying sand. The stoppage of these tractors on the main road itself aggravates the situation.  The entire road stretch has degraded qualitatively.

We submit that the mining activity is happening in violation of the Hon’ble Supreme High Court’s directive in SLP No. 19628-19629 dated February 27, 2012. Koilwar rail-road-Bridge on Sone also faces grave threat from such indiscriminate mining violating all the existing environmental norms. This order has been reiterated by National Green Tribunal.  Please find attached the NGT order on Sand Mining issue, order of Union Ministry of Environment & Forests on Brick Earth and Ordinary Earth and Hon'ble Supreme Court's order on Minor minerals.

I submit that fact that Indian Minerals Yearbook 2012 (Part- I), 51st Edition, State Reviews (Bihar) published by Indian Bureau of Mines, Ministry of Mines, Government of India in May 2014 does not mention the quantum of total minable sand available in Sone river in the Bihar stretch, total extraction of sand, total value of the sand and revenue generated from it as it has excluded minor minerals like sand from its report. There is an immediate need to prepare such report on minor minerals like sand to ascertain the carrying capacity of Sone and how much sand is required to be left in the river to remain alive to prevent its drying up.
I submit that there is an urgent need to constitute a high powered technical committee to assess the impact of sand mining in the Babura-Koilwar stretch on surface water and ground water given the fact that water table is going down at an alarming rate.      

I submit that the Revenue and Expenditure Information provided your department reveals that the collection of revenue from Bhojpur is quite low (less than 200 lakh) in comparison to the annual target of Rs 5986.08 lakh.  It is apparent that there is complicity which is resulting in such low collection. 

I submit that there is a need to investigate whether there has been compliance with National Green Tribunal’s order restraining sand mining without any licence or environmental clearance.

I submit that unless mechanised sand mining is stopped Sone river ecosystem is bound to suffer an irreparable damage. Hon’ble Supreme Court had made environmental clearance mandatory for all mining sites that included sand mining but it appears that the same not been complied with.

I submit that given the fact that sand is not an inexhaustible minor mineral contrary to the thinking of sand mining contractors and construction industry. All rivers have sand, a minor mineral for which the construction industry and contractors are hungry.

According to research from Transparency International, sand mining remains one of the most corrupt sectors according to the Bribe Payers Index. Sand mining is impossible without political patronage anywhere in the country because sand mining or sand dredging makes the engine of ‘sustainable development’ run. Construction industry can come to a grinding halt without it. But sand mining is happening at a rate faster than nature can replenish it.

The million dollar question as to how much sand does Bihar’s construction and real estate industry need and what will be its environmental cost must be addressed. There is no estimate of sand requirement in the housing and non-housing sector in Bihar.

If sand mining continues to follow the current trend aquifers in the floodplains will start drying up because sand mining lowers the riverbed. It must be noted that sand in the riparian areas recharges groundwater through percolation of water from different layers of sand. But indiscriminate sand mining adversely affects the vertical and lateral movement of water and the groundwater recharge.

I submit that your department must define what is sustainable and environment friendly sand mining. The legal regime to regulate sand mining is not yet robust but in the face of imminent environmental and water crisis. Your department ought to consider restraining sand mining other than by manual excavation that too of accumulated sand. The practice of river bed mining is deeply myopic. Unless far-sighted intervention is made the villages in the vicinity of Sone river will become ghost villages due to water scarcity.

In view of the above, I submit that while illegal mining and over loading must be stopped with immediate effect, Bihar’s Sand Mining Policy 2013 that allows mining in five hectare area must be re-considered because the fact of extraction of alluvial material within or near a riverbed impacts the river’s physical characteristics like stability, flood risk, environmental degradation, loss of habitat and biodiversity cannot be ignored in the interest of present and future generations. One cannot be thieves and robbers of resources which belong to future generations. Sand robbery is an act of river robbery because no river can remain alive without sand. This creates an urgent need to undertake cumulative impact assessment with regard to surface water and the ground water aquifers.

Thanking You

Yours faithfully
Gopal Krishna
ToxicsWatch Alliance (TWA)
Mb: 08227816731, 09818089660
E-mail:1715krishna@gmail.com
Web: www.toxicswatch.org

Cc
Shri Ramesh Prasad Ranjan, Additional Secretary, Department of Mines & Geology, Government of Bihar
Shri Basant Kumar Choudhary, Lawyer, Hon'ble Patna High Court
Shri Sanjay Parikh, Lawyer, Hon'ble Supreme Court



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-------Wilhelm von Humboldt, 1792