SANDRP report points to increasing violence by illegal sand miners and calls for urgent need to regulate riverbed mining
SAND mining, fuelled by the booming construction industry, has grown into a huge business in India though much of it is illegal. The South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers and People has documented the impact of illegal sand mining on the lives of people in a report titled “Sand Mining Violence India: 2019-20”. According to the report, for almost two years, between January 2019 and November 15, 2020, at least 193 people died in incidents relating to illegal sand mining such as riverbed pit mine collapse, drowning, gang rivalry and attacks on journalists and environmentalists by the sand mafia. One reporter in Uttar Pradesh and two activists in Odisha and one each in Bihar and Tamil Nadu were killed “for opposing and exposing illegal sand mining”. The report says: “Similarly, the villagers of Yamuna Nagar and Panipat have been facing attacks, threats and hostile administration for opposing illegal mining in the Yamuna river for the past two years.
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