-Down to Earth blog Simply put, the sand mafias originated because the sand business is low investment, low risk and high returns, notwithstanding few roadblocks like Ms Durga Shakti Nagpal or the media taking up her cause as a cause celebre! For they know well that with raw material (sand) in easy reach and end user (realty sector) little bothered wherefrom or legality of the ware, business as usual, no matter, shall...
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High stakes, mega bucks fuel illegal ‘dig-load-sell’ sand business -Surojit Gupta
-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Humble sand is today big business. The boom in the construction industry in the last decade has triggered a huge demand for sand, to meet which contractors, with the help of pliant state officials, have begun a dig-load-sell exercise at a frantic pace. The story of illegal loot of sand in this high-stake business is repeated in state after state. TOI spoke to several officials, activists,...
More »The sand management challenge-Nitin Sethi
-The Hindu As the operations of organised gangs that seek to make a killing out of the insatiable demand for sand are in focus, environmental concerns posed by indiscriminate mining grow. Nitin Sethi discusses the imperatives. Should India have a river regulatory zone, on the lines of the coastal regulatory zone, to manage development and mining activity? The devastation in Uttarakhand, and the controversy over the sand mafia's control on river beds,...
More »Sand mining causes Yamuna to shift 500m east, threaten Noida -Vandana Keelor
-The Times of India NOIDA: The sand mafia, against which suspended IAS officer Durga Nagpal had started a campaign, has been responsible for the Yamuna shifting course about 500 metres east, posing a threat to sectors 150, 151, 153, 135, 167 and 168 of Noida. Irrigation department officials here say they have repeatedly warned the district administration about this and also filed several FIRs with the police, the last one in March...
More »Eco concerns delay river-bed mining -Manpreet Randhawa
-The Hindustan Times Chandigarh: Ecological issues have delayed the start of river-bed mining, an idea propagated by Punjab deputy chief minister Sukhbir Singh Badal with the aim of extracting enough sand not only to meet the growing demand but also to control its skyrocketing rates in the market. The plan may not be implemented immediately as the proposed quarries would require clearance from the state environment impact assessment authority. Also, environmentalists fear...
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