Sand Mining Affects Agriculture in Western India

The continuous illegal sand mining in the rivers that flow through Surat City of India's western Gujarat state by builders has two serious side effects – it alters the natural course of the rivers and not enough water for crops mean less money in farmers’ pockets.

[Subodh Nayak, Farmer, Navsari, Gujarat]:
"Illegal ways of sieving out sand from the river has adversely affected our agriculture fields, and our produce has also gone down. Compared to last year, my produce has gone down by 50 percent. We have made complaints against this but the administration is not doing anything."

Some of the rivers impacted are the Ambika, Kaveri Purna, Tapi and the Khapra.

Due to the impact of excessive mechanized sand mining and hydraulic dredging activities in these rivers, South Gujarat is under severe threat of what seems like an imminent disaster.

The state administration refutes this charge.

[Manoj Gajre, Deputy Collector, Navsari, Gujarat]:
"The Geology and Mining Department of the Gujarat government are strictly observing it. The sand mining work is all legal and proper as per the need and the licenses given. Royalty is also provided, and if somebody is suffering through a loss, then the village council can stop it anytime and cancel the process."

However, one non-governmental organization in the state is working to save these rivers and protect farmers' rights.

[Jayesh Nayak, Ambika river Bkaho Bono Defence Campaign]:
"Due to the constant sieving of sand from the rivers, these rivers have developed 40-70 percent of huge cavities inside them. And this sand mining has also made the water saline, which has in turn made sources of these water bodies more saline. Due to all this, the fertile land of the farmers has also gone saline, and that is the reason behind the produce depleting by almost 20-30 percent."

The NGO says that the administration's claims are false and nothing has been done even after farmers made several complaints.