Member- Finance and Economics Think Council
Sand is an important ingredient for the construction industry, economy and politics.
Well, we know the role of externalities in the economy whether positive or negative. Sand is among those externalities which without proper vigilance and care may turn into a negative externality and render a severe blow to the people as flood and water scarcity, worsening the already miserable state of these calamities.
Not only the economic cost of illegal sand mining is a loss of revenue to the Exchequers, but also its impacts on the environment, ecology, aquatic life and sustainable development are beyond assessment.
Often we underrate such threats which result in a terrific blow to humanity, as in the case of Uttarakhand flood.
According to a study by the United Nations, humankind uses around 400 billion tonnes sand each year, with Indian peninsula ranking second in sand usage.
Sand and boulders are often perceived as useless in the riverbed. However, they act as a barrier to the river’s erosive power. In this capacity, they help to check the speed of the flood and act as a buffer for river bed and aquatic life.
Sand is important for groundwater too, it works as aquifer between the flowing river and water table, ignoring this fact has lead to the acute problem of water scarcity.
Mindless mining and careless loading on truck results in loss of large quantities of water in transit.
Unplanned and rampant removal of sand from river beds results in the destruction of the habitat of biodiversity. There are a lot of microorganisms that are not visible and widely known but are critical for the purity of river water and fertility of the soil when we mine we take away their habitats. Even many people have warned about the method of mining like explosions and heavy machines in the Himalayan region and advised manual mining.
Sustainable and planned mechanism of mining can save us from catastrophic result standing in near future. Sand has become so important that island countries like Singapore are importing it to increase their land territory.
According to an estimate illegal mining has caused the loss of 1000-1500 crore revenue in Noida and Greater Noida.
The main culprit behind this is Mafia-politician Nexus because according to the cooperative-federal structure of constitution power related to law and order and natural resources are reserved in-state list using this power politician provide habitat for illegal mining to Balu mafias and in return get their portion of the commission. Lack of enforcement, rampant corruption at various strata of governance have rendered current sand mining law and permit system ineffective.
Unluckily, illegal sand mining has not received the attention it deserved like other prominent environmental issues such as climate change or air and water pollution.
NGT issues guideline from time to time on this matter but state government fails in their enforcement. The government can take steps like the use of night vision drones for surveillance of mining sites, environmental auditing, issuing a license with full transparency, alternatives to sand and a most importantly zero-tolerance policy for dealing with Balu mafias.