GUWAHATI
Villagers of Assam and Meghalaya along a stretch known more for inter-State boundary disputes have come together against illegal sand mining.
Members of several organisations on either side of the boundary gathered at Nokmakundi in Meghalaya’s North Garo Hills on Saturday (November 2, 2024) for a rally to express resentment over the unabated illegal sand mining in the rivers along the border between the two States.
Organisations such as the Garo Students’ Union (GSU), Garo Women’s Council, and All Bodo Students’ Union (ABSU) joined the rally, seeking a coordinated approach to checking illegal sand mining, which “put our lives and livelihoods in peril”.
Dhiraj Hazowary, the local ABSU leader, said excessive sand mining has affected the area’s ecosystem. “The aquatic life of the rivers has been affected and the riverbanks are eroding. Hundreds of overloaded trucks are transporting sand illegally daily, damaging the roads too,” he said.
He said the Dudhnoi (Manda) River is among the most affected and accused the Forest Department officials of a nexus with the sand miners and transporters.
“Nokmakundi and nearby villages are facing erosion and lack of water for cultivation even during the rainy seasons,” GSU leader Folding R. Marak said. He exhorted the people to fight the sand miners by citing the example of villagers in Assam’s Kamrup district who forced the local authorities to stop sand mining in the Boko River.’
Locals said the people of Nokmakundi, Kalikapara and other villages under Dudunoi Revenue Circle of Assam’s Goalpara district submitted a joint public complaint to the authorities concerned in March 2023. Action was initiated against the illegal sand miners but they resumed their activities a year later.
Mr. Marak said the authorities are yet to respond to appeals made since to stop the illegal sand mining.
River dolphins at risk
Indiscriminate sand mining, expanding industrial operations, and anthropogenic pressure have affected the Gangetic dolphin (Gangetica platanista) habitats in the Kulsi and Morakolohi rivers in the Kamrup district.
The Gangetic dolphin is a Schedule 1 species under the Wildlife Protection Act of 1972 and is classified as ‘endangered’ by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
Conservationists attribute river dolphin habitat loss primarily to unregulated and largely illegal sand mining at several upstream and downstream points of the two rivers. The Forest Department, however, claimed that it has been able to check illegal mining to some extent.
The sand mining in the Morakolohi River is concentrated near Puthimari village, which is close to the Chamaria police station.
Locals in the Chamaria area said the miners use pump motors to extract sand at a much faster rate than the river system can sustain. More than 20 dumpers transport sand during the night while more than 20 tractors operate during the day.
Conservationist Rajesh Dutta Baruah told journalists that the Kulsi River, a tributary of the Brahmaputra, has been impacted most by illegal sand mining. Such has been the extent of the damage that the water flow to the Kukurmara, one of the two channels of the river, has almost stopped.
“This has dealt a severe blow to the once-thriving dolphin habitat along the Kukurmara stretch although mechanised sand mining has reduced in recent times,” he said.
