Illegal mining leaves a dent on Bengal’s ecology and economy
Arun Pathak, a revenue officer in West Bengal, was injured while stopping a truck carrying illegally mined boulders.
On the morning of August 14, Arun Pathak, a revenue officer from the block land and land reforms office (BL&LRO) at Dhupguri in West Bengal’s Jalpaiguri district, was on a routine duty to check challans of vehicles carrying boulders extracted from rivers.
He stopped a pick-up truck near the Bamni bridge and was checking the challan when the driver suddenly tried to speed off. Pathak held on to the running vehicle and was dragged for a few metres before the van rammed into a temple. He sustained minor injuries. The driver was later arrested. Boulders extracted illegally were being transported in the pick-up, officials said.
In May , Pathak was attacked by some men illegally transporting boulders when he stopped them. The vehicle was carrying more boulders than it was allowed to. Prior to that, a revenue officer in Uttar Dinajpur was beaten up by miscreants associated with the illegal mining of river bed materials.
Illegal mining of sand and river bed material (RBM), which comprises boulders, gravel, and sand, are going on rampantly across West Bengal, resulting in a loss of revenue to the state and destruction of the environment.
To be sure, the mining of boulders, sand and RBM is a national problem -- from the Aravallis in Rajasthan and Haryana to the Chambal river bed in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan to the Cauvery river bed in Tamil Nadu. However, many of the rivers in north Bengal flow in from Bhutan, bringing in RBM rich in dolomite, with construction workers making a bee-line for the mineral.
How it worksAround 80km from Jalpaiguri town in north Bengal lies the serene village of Chamurchi, close to the Indo-Bhutan border, and on the banks of a river locally called Khanabarti.
The almost dry vast river bed was empty on the day of HT’s visit.
“You won’t find anything now. You need to come in the dead of the night. Hundreds of trucks and dumpers extract the RBM from the river bed illegally throughout the night. Even earthmoving machines are deployed on the riverbed which is illegal. They all vanish by morning,” said Jagadish Roy, a local.
The districts of Alipurduar, Jalpaiguri and Darjeeling in north Bengal are crisscrossed by multiple rivers which enter India from Bhutan. They bring in large quantities of boulders, gravel and sand and RBM is rich in dolomite which makes them preferred construction material.
RBM is extracted and transported to other parts of the state and even to Bangladesh. Much of this is done illegally. The entire extraction is controlled by syndicates which are controlled by locals, some of whom are allegedly close to the ruling party.
The state government auctions blocks, every five years, from where the sand and RBM may be legally extracted, and only preregistered vehicles are allowed to transport them with challans.
“But the local mafia flouts the norms and extract huge amount of sand and RBM from the river bed. The quantity is much more that what they are allowed to extract. Also, the distance and time for which each vehicle can operate is fixed in the challan. But here too, they violate norms by making additional trips,” said a Jogeshwar Barman, a truck driver who transports RBM to Bangladesh.
Who controls the trade?Locals alleged that the illegal trade is controlled by the local mafia which has the support of a section of leaders of the ruling party and works in connivance with a section of police and district administration.
“The situation is alarming. The extraction stops only for a few months during the monsoon. During the winter, every night almost 200-250 trucks, enter the river bed to lift boulders, gravels, sand. Crores of rupees are involved. The police know everything. Can this happen without the assistance of the ruling party of the state?” said Jayanta Kumar Roy, BJP MP from Jalpaiguri.
The West Bengal Mineral Development and Trading Corporation Limited (WBMDTCL), the nodal agency in the state to control the mining, received over 900 complaints on illegal mining in the last two years.
In 2021 the Mamata Banerjee-administration introduced the sand mining policy which intends to put in place a centralised system for the auction of sand quarries.
Clashes over control of dry river beds – which form the bedrock of a thriving illegal sand-mining industry – are not uncommon in the districts such as Birbhum, Bankura, West Midnapore, Hooghly, Burdwan and Howrah among others.
“Because of the local mafia, the state government was losing out on revenue and the state’s natural resources were also being plundered. We have been noticing this for long and many complaints have also poured in. None would be spared even if he is an officer or a politician,” chief minister Mamata Banerjee said in July 2021.
Political experts said at the time that the initiative was more of a political move by the party supremo to rein in local leaders and improve the party’s image with an eye on the 2024 elections.
The government’s current position is that it is trying to clean up things.
“People with vested interests sometimes get associated with the party. They carry the party’s flag but work for personal gains. There are such instances. We inform the police when such complaints pour in. The chief minister has issued strict orders that in such cases the police shouldn’t look for political affiliations. Action should be taken irrespective of the political colour,” said Udayan Guha, state north Bengal development minister.
The ecological impact and government’s loss of revenueIn north Bengal, the extraction is mostly of RBM from the major rivers such as Teesta, Torsa, Kaljani, Jaldhaka, Sankosh and even smaller ones such as Gilandi, Duduya, Khanabarti among others. In south Bengal, it is primarily sand which is mined from the western districts of the states such as Birbhum, Bankura, Midnapore and Burdwan from rivers such as the Damodar and Ajay.
Sand is always in short supply in India’s booming construction industry.
Estimates available with the state government reveal that there are more than 450 auctioned mines across West Bengal from where sand and RBM are extracted.
“Only a minuscule portion of this trade is legal, much of it is illegal and the business runs into thousands of crores of rupees. There exists a nexus between local politicians, mafia and the administration,” said Biswajit Mukherjee, former chief law officer of the West Bengal Pollution Control Board.
“The West Bengal Sand Mining Policy was implemented in 2021. Prior to the policy the government’s revenue earning from sand and river bed material extraction was around ₹150 crore. By 2023-24 the revenue shot up by nearly five times,” said a senior government officer who asked not to be named.
Environmentalists said that the illegal mining also takes a heavy toll on the local ecology and the river itself.
“Unbridled and unscientific extraction of sand and RBM in the upper reaches of the river can trigger heavy erosion. The Mekong River is a classic example. There is massive sand mining in the upper part of Mekong leading to huge erosion in lower part of the delta. The structures near the river such as bridges, dams and houses also get affected due to this. Also, this extraction has a huge impact on the ecology and local biodiversity as it disturbs the river bed. The entire ecosystem is disturbed,” said Tuhin Ghosh, director of School of Oceanographic Studies at Jadavpur University.
The state forest department had recommended that illegal mines in rivers such as Mechi, Basra, Diana, Chel, Leesh and Murti among should be stopped and those in Mahananda, Teesta, Sukhani and Raidhak may be regulated.
“This unbridled and unscientific extraction from the river bed is leading to massive erosion and the river’s course is also getting altered. Forests and land on both sides of the rivers are getting damaged as the banks are collapsing,” said Roy, BJP MP from Jalpaiguri.
What the state government is doing Prior to 2016, the permission to extract sand and RBM was given by the district land and land reforms officer (DLLRO) on a first come-first served basis without any auction. The West Bengal Minor Mineral (Auction) Rules 2016, however, made it mandatory for all natural resources to be auctioned. Thereafter the district authorities were given power to auction blocks from where sand and river bed material could be extracted.
The sand mining rules across the country went a sea change between 2016 and 2018 due to a series of orders by the Supreme Court and the National Green Tribunal. The Ministry of Environment and Forests came up with a volley of regulations.
“Earlier the District Environment Impact Assessment Authority (DEIAA) headed by the district magistrate used to give the environment clearance (EC). But in 2018 the NGT directed that DEIAA won’t be able to issue EC. The preparation of the district survey report was made mandatory,” said a second government official who asked not to be named.
WBMTDCL prepares the district survey reports which are then sent to the districts for verification before finalization. The report describes potential zones for mining minor minerals such as sand.
Earlier challans were issued manually to vehicles transporting the sand and riverbed materials. But since December 2021 only e-challans with QR codes are issued centrally.
“An app has also been developed with which security agencies may check the QR codes of the challans. If the numbers do not match the vehicle is locked,” added the second official.
“There are several rivers in the districts of north Bengal which enter India from Bhutan hills. Several people extract sand and river bed material illegally. It hasn’t stopped despite monitoring. On many occasions government officials come under attack. The state administration and police are handling it firmly. Those involved are often arrested but they come out on bail and do the same thing again,” said Udayan Guha, the state’s north Bengal development minister.
