Times of India: Mangaluru: Tuesday,
August 02, 2016.
National
Environment Care Federation (NECF), an NGO, released on Monday a 300 page
document with sting video clippings on illegal sand mining allegedly taking
place in Unidivided Dakshina Kannada district.
NECF convener
Shashidhar Shetty said the illegal sand mining in coastal Karnataka is a
multi-crore scandal of more than Rs 850 crore per annum. He said, the document
prepared in a span of nearly two and a half years, has sufficient documents to
prove the illegal sand mining in Udupi and Dakshina Kannada district. "It
took more than two years for us to obtain various documents that prove the
illegal sand mining. We gathered 2,800 pages of documents through RTI Act and
various other sources to prepare a 300 page PDF document. A year-long sting
operation has been carried out at various locations, where illegal sand mining
is being carried out in Udupi and Dakshina Kannada districts. It is found
during our operation that sand mining is being carried out beyond the
permissible limits and all the rules are being violated," Shashidhar said.
As per rules,
sand mining license can be issued only to those fishing community, he said.
"Only fishing communities are eligible to mine sand using traditional
boats from the spots identified by the government. The extracted sand should be
utilized only for local construction activities. No machines like earthmovers,
dredgers or mechanized boats are allowed during sand mining. However, we found
during our operation that all types of machines are used to extract sand from
river beds in both districts. Though sand mining is not allowed around 500
meter radius of bridges, we have noticed workers extracting sand from river
beds near bridges on national highways at Nethravathi, Basrur, Malavoor and
several other places," Shashidhar said.
District
administrations of Udupi and Dakshina Kannada have failed utterly in checking
illegal sand mining activities, he said. "The process of sand bar
identification adopted in this region is unscientific and is not as per rules.
Sand mining is not allowed in Coastal Regulation Zones (CRZ). However, licenses
have been issued to extract sand from sand bars in CRZs too. The Federation
will question the legality of allowing sand mining in CRZ in coastal Karnataka
at the National Green Tribunal (NGT)," he said adding that a petition has
already been moved in the NGT New Delhi through an advocate.
He said
illegal sand mining has destroyed even mangrove islands at several places in
Undivided Dakshina Kannada district. Though sand mining ban should be in place
for four months from June 1 to facilitate the breeding of microorganisms, the
ban period has been reduced to two months unscientifically, he pointed out
adding that DVDs containing documents and videos of illegal sand mining in twin
districts have been sent to the Prime Minister, Union ministers, chief justice
of the High Court, Governor, ministers, chief secretary, NGT, police department
heads and National Human Rights Commission.
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