Illegal sand mining of gargantuan magnitude is continuing unabated a along the banks of the famous Manair River, a tributary of Godavari in Telangana. The illegal sand mining is happening despite Supreme Court order banning the same and the order by the National Green Tribunal asking the Telangana Government to get environmental clearance for the same from the concerned agencies.
Each village along the banks of River Manair is robbed off high quality sand worth Rs 100 crore per tender per year by a cartel of politicians, bureaucrats and contractors, according to Gottimukkula Suresh Reddy, a young engineer who is Telangana’s widely respected whistle blower. A US-returned technocrat from the Peddapally village in Telangana, Suresh wanted to help the youth in his village and surrounding areas to earn a reasonable income by getting them employment based on their skills and technical knowledge. “There are thousands of youth with driving licenses, and other professional skills in these villages. They could make use of their qualification and work as sand miners and transporters if the State Government gives licenses of sand mining to them,” said Suresh.
But what he saw in the region was worse than what one comes across in commercial Tollywood movies. “The contractors who manage to get licenses for sand mining have swindled the rivers of the quality sand which is very much in demand. Though the rule book mandates that license for sand mining could be given only after getting environmental clearance ( as pe the directive of the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change, MoEF&CC for short) these requirements and openly flouted. The National Green Tribunal after hearing our petition pronounced the verdict that the dredging and de-siltation of River Manair are being carried out in violation of all guidelines issued by expert agencies like National Framework of Sediment Management ,” said Suresh.
The NGT after considering the petition filed by Suresh and others agreed with the petitioners’ contention that the Telangana Government and Telangana Mineral Development Corporation have openly flouted the norms and there was no public hearing, a mandatory requirement under the rules. Peddapalli district alone is looted of Rs 1200 crore every year by the sand mafia, according to Suresh. Since the looting is continuing despite the apex court order, Suresh Reddy has approached Telangana Governor (in-charge) C P Radhakrishnan seeking his intervention in the issue.
Even the permission granted for mining the sand is misused by the contractors who loot sand more than the officially allowed quantity. “Those who question the impropriety are issued death threats by the powerful contractor-police axis,” said Suresh.
Though the NGT issued an order asking for the stoppage of sand mining of any kind vide its verdict dated 21st May 2024, mining continues unabated in all the ten districts.
The Government appointed district level sand mining committees consisting of district collector as chairman, department of police, mining, irrigation and ground water departments besides local residents are forced to stand silently watching the illegal sandmining.
The Government of Telangana has its own reasons to justify the mining. It claims that all the 24 check dams built across the river have been washed away due to heavy rains. But only five dams have been built till date and out of this three have been washed away because of heavy rains and hence they are incapable to prevent the sand from running off,” added Suresh who is a senior BJP leader in the State.
