The new sand policy, cleared by the State Government during the last Cabinet, has drawn criticism from environmentalists on the grounds that little thought has gone into conservation of natural resources and conceiving a scientific approach in promoting alternatives and sustainable use of sand.
It is perceived to have focused on only price fixation apart from delineating the revenue sharing arrangement and legalizing the extraction process through licensing.
Unbridled extraction
“The message is that sand extraction will continue unabated and opening up local streams and waterbodies for local work is akin to issuing blanket permission for sand mining anywhere,” said U.N. Ravikumar, an environmentalist who has been advocating alternative and sustainable technology for over three decades.
Expressing concern over the absence of an environmental perspective in the policy, Mr. Ravikumar said unbridled sand extraction not only has a negative effect on ground water recharge, it will also lead to erosion of river banks and cause flooding apart from wreaking havoc on the aquatic life forms and their habitat.
Small streams and rivers
The new rules allow sand extraction from local streams, tanks and lakes. This leeway is expected to harm waterbodies if the officers fail to regulate the activities. Though the rule says the extraction from local sources is allowed for community works, housing works and government works, chances of misusing the provision by the powerful lobby cannot be ruled out.
Akhilesh Chipli, an environmentalist in Sagar taluk, said allowing extraction in local streams would pose a threat to rivers themselves. “Small streams finally join rivers. If streams are disturbed, rivers are also affected gradually. Under the guise of helping villagers, the government is damaging local waterbodies and this should not be allowed,” he added. Mr. Ravikumar said streams and rivers – like Arkavathi and Gundal near Gundlupet – which were once thought to be perennial, now have only intermittent flow as a result of reckless sand mining and deforestation.
No mechanism in place
Though the guidelines and the policy states that the quantity of extraction will be monitored, there is no mechanism in place and the gram panchayats will be happy to issue licenses as sand extraction is viewed as a source of revenue generation, according to Mr. Ravikumar. Advocating alternative methods that have evolved in the construction field, Mr. Ravikumar said there was also scope for recycling of building debris.
Patta lands
The government, in the new rules, banned the extraction of sand in patta land. However, it allows the district sand committees to take a decision on granting permission to extract sand from such lands. Activists point out that when the district committee is authorized to take a decision, the ‘ban’ does not hold significance. Those into sand mining are powerful people with the support of elected representatives. For them getting clearance from the district committee is not a difficult task, according to activists.
