Illegal mining of sand in different rivers of Nuapada district has become rampant. Villagers of Khudpej and Tukla gram panchayats in Khariar block have filed written complaints in the office of the local tehsildar urging him for action, but hundreds of tractor-loads of sand are still being lifted every day from rivers.
“We requested the tehsildar to take action against the people involved in the illegal mining, but the tehsildar is silent,” said villagers of Khudpej. They held roadblocks to protest against the inaction of the administration and demanding stoppage of sand mining in Sundar river near their village.
Ironically, instead of justice, the villagers faced criminal action for opposing the mining last year. A police case was filed against them by the sand mafias. “The lease was given to a person on negotiation without having any
public auction” said the villagers. Ät least a hundred tractor-loads of sand are lifted every day from the confluence of rivers Sundar and Arjuni near village Tukla,” reported Fakira Jagat of Tukla village.
As per information of technicians working in a bridge construction project on Arjuni river, the depth of sand of these two rivers near Tukla is only five feet. “In such a situation, mining of sand here is detrimental to the river environment,” said Tukla villagers.
Tehsil sources revealed that officially there are eight sites of sand mining in Sundar and Arjuni rivers, but the actual number is more than that. “There are at least 20 sites in Sundar river between the lower Indra Irrigation Project site and Tukla village, where sand mining is done. In most of the places, the sand depth is less than five to six feet.
Under such circumstances, indiscriminate mining would deplete the sand level further,” said Sanjay Tiwari of Khariar. “At least 25 to 30 tractor-loads of sand are lifted from each site every day, making the total lifting to about 600 loads.
It is interesting that none of the sand leaseholders have obtained environment clearance as per law.
The Green Tribunal has imposed a complete ban on mining of minor minerals like sand and stone in less than five hectares of land without environment clearance (EC) from the State Environment Impact Assessment Authority (SEIAA).
It is learnt that the leaseholders, instead of obtaining EC, have taken short-term permits for mining sand, which is illegal.
“The total loss of royalty would be more than `1 crore per year at `84 per tractor-load,” said activist Jagat.