Wednesday, May 6, 2015

Dinesh Kamath's news 'Sand Mafia is become active again in Navi Mumbai' that was published in Newsband

Sand Mafia is become active again in Navi Mumbai
By Dinesh Kamath


NAVI MUMBAI: Sand mafia is in the news again. Environmentalist and activists have raised their voices again to protest the illegal sand mining along the coast of Kharghar, near Morbi village. They are also complaining about the large scale destruction of mangroves that is taking place owing to the debris being dumped in the coastal region.
“If sand mining is allowed to continue in this manner then Kharghar one day will lose its greenery entirely,” said an environmentalist.
The sand miners use gunny bags and machines to perform their act of extracting the sand and transporting them to the chosen place. The authorities are informed about the same and they are trying their best to stop such illegal activities and nab the culprits.
Some activists have urged the local authorities to take the help of State Government and if necessary even the Central Government to stop illegal sand mining in such a large scale. They also condemned the assaulting of government officers in the past who tried to prevent the illegal sand mining.
There is so much money in this sand mining business that many youngsters are indulging in this criminal business without caring about the risk factor that is involved in pursuing this business. There has been a continuous tussle between illegal sand miners on one side and the police and government employees on the other. It has always been a tough battle between the two.
When an expert on sand mining was questioned about such illegal activities, he replied “Sand mining is a practice that is used to extract sand, mainly through an open pit. However, sand is also mined from beaches, inland dunes and dredged from ocean beds and river beds. It is often used in manufacturing as an abrasive, for example, and it is used to make concrete. It is also used in cold regions to put on the roads by municipal plow trucks to help icy and snowy driving conditions, usually mixed with salt or another mixture to raise the freezing temperature of the road surface. Sand dredged from the mouths of rivers can also be used to replace eroded coastline.
Another reason for sand mining is the extraction of minerals such as rutile, ilmenite and zircon, which contain the industrially useful elements titanium and zirconium. These minerals typically occur combined with ordinary sand, which is dug up, the valuable minerals being separated in water by virtue of their different densities, and the remaining ordinary sand re-deposited.
Sand mining is a direct cause of erosion, and also impacts the local wildlife. For example, sea turtles depend on sandy beaches for their nesting, and sand mining has led to the near extinction of gharials (a species of crocodiles) in India. Disturbance of underwater and coastal sand causes turbidity in the water, which is harmful for such organisms as corals that need sunlight. It also destroys fisheries, causing problems for people who rely on fishing for their livelihoods.
Removal of physical coastal barriers such as dunes leads to flooding of beachside communities, and the destruction of picturesque beaches causes tourism to dissipate. Sand mining is regulated by law in many places, but is still often done illegally.”
When asked about the sand mining in Navi Mumbai, he said, “Sand mining is a practice that is becoming an environmental issue in Navi Mumbai. Environmentalists have raised public awareness of illegal sand mining in Navi Mumbai. Conservation and environmental NGO Awaaz Foundation filed a public interest litigation in the Bombay High Court seeking a ban on mining activities along the Konkan coast. Awaaz Foundation, in partnership with the Bombay Natural History Society also presented the issue of sand mining as a major international threat to coastal biodiversity. It is absolutely necessary to control the mafia involved in land grabbing and sand mining.”

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