Mining is still going on discretely in Greater Noida. Mined sand from the riverbed is bought to some villages where it is collected for a day or two (Photo: Soma Basu)

The sand mining lobby active in Greater Noida seems to be desperate to evade government scrutiny. When a Union environment ministry-appointed committee visited the area in Gautam Budh Nagar district of Uttar Pradesh on August 7 to inspect status of sand mining along the Yamuna, it found a sand extraction site near Gaddi village flooded with water. Sand miners had apparently pumped water from the Yamuna to flood the banks because they did not want the panel to determine the extent of illegal mining in the area. Three leases have been given to private parties in the area, but not one had obtained environmental clearance.

The three-member panel, comprising director of Union Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF), Saroj, deputy collector with Indian Bureau of Mines, G C Meena, and director of regional office of MoEF, K K Garg, visited Greater Noida along with local geology and mining department officials. The panel was appointed in the wake of the controversy over IAS officer Durga Shakti Nagapal’s suspension [2]  after she took action to curb illegal sand mining in the area.

They panel members found that illegal mining of sand along Yamuna river had stopped just hours before the panel’s visit.

Tell tale evidence

At Gaddi-Samastipur site, the panel found heaps of sand stored and visible impressions of the sand being lifted from the site. “The water was seen just adjacent to these heaps of sand. A village resident informed that there was no water till late night of August 6 and all of sudden water was pumped in huge quantity,” states the panel in a report released on August 10.

The panel members then approached students of a primary school adjacent to the mining site. They asked the children a few questions. “The children informed that when they left for school in the morning the water level was very low and in about five hours time the entire bank was full of water. One of the village residents also informed that he had crossed this area by boat and had walked on the bank but he was surprised to see water level has gone up on the bank within a span of four hours,” the report stated.

At the confluence of Hindon and Yamuna, near Mamnathalal village, the panel found that a small building had been constructed by the sand miners while JCBs were parked outside the building close to the river bank. The panel noticed deep trenches where heavy vehicles regularly lifted sand. The panel also found that large amounts of sand was stocked by the miners near Zuppa village on Hamidpur-Palwal Road under the Yamuna bridge, at Kundli and Yakutpur villages, too.

While talking to the local people at Zuppa village, the panel found out that in most cases the the local farmers gave away certain portions of their farms to store the sand mined from these river banks. “The villagers lend their farms for storing the sand and it is lifted as and when it is economically viable,” states the report.

It was only at Raipur Khadan village, the panel was informed that 407 acres (one acre equals 0.4 hectare) near the river bank was given on lease to private sand miners. The committee, however, found that out of 407 acres, lease period for 251 acres had already expired in May, while only one site had valid mining lease till September 15, 2013. When the panel asked whether environmental clearance of the leased sites have been ascertained, the state mining department officials informed that no consent to operate was sought from Uttar Pradesh Pollution Control Board, nor any Environmental Impact Assessment was conducted for the sites. The visiting panel concluded that even the leased sites were violating the environmental laws.