Indian Kanoon - Search engine for Indian Law

23. The unscientific manner of river sand mining undertaken by the Public Works Department appears to be the root cause for the entire problem.

24. The adverse effect of sand mining without a proper mine plan was indicated by the Hon'ble Supreme Court in Deepak Kumar and others v. State of Haryana and others [ (2012) 4 SCC 629]

9. Extraction of alluvial material from within or near a streambed has a direct impact on the stream's physical habitat characteristics. These characteristics include bed elevation, substrate composition and stability, instream roughness elements, depth, velocity, turbidity, sediment transport, stream discharge and temperature. Altering these habitat characteristics can have deleterious impacts on both instream biota and the associated riparian habitat. The demand for sand continues to increase day by day as building and construction of new infrastructures and expansion of existing ones is continuous thereby placing immense pressure on the supply of the sand resource and hence mining activities are going on legally and illegally without any restrictions. Lack of proper planning and sand management cause disturbance of marine ecosystem and also upset the ability of natural marine processes to replenish the sand.

33. The mining should be undertaken by the State without any adverse impact on the environment. The State alone is responsible for this sorry state of affairs. There is no proper mechanism to check the illegal quarrying and the excess sand mining. The authorities who are given the mandate to operate the sand quarry are not at all concerned with the environment and ecology. They are conducting mining activities in collusion with the mining mafia and looting the natural wealth.

34. The River sand is an essential raw material for construction activity. The cost of construction nowadays depends upon very much on the cost of sand. The State for supply of sand to the people at affordable rate ought to have quarried the River sand judiciously and in compliance with the environmental norms and without causing destruction of Rivers. There is no dispute that depletion of sand in the stream bed would result in deepening of rivers and it would have a cascading effect on the environment. Therefore, a balance has to be struck taking into account the need to preserve the ecology and the need for quarrying River Sand for the economic development of the State.

38. This Court taking into account the large scale illegal quarrying and excess quarrying restrained the Public Works Department from undertaking sand quarrying operations along the River bed of River Cauvery and Coleroon. Our apprehension that such unscientific and illegal quarrying would adversely affect the environment is confirmed by the report submitted by the Court Commissioners.

39. We are aware that the Government is committed to provide dwelling houses to the poor. The Central Government appears to have fixed 2022 as the deadline for providing dwelling units to the house less in the country. The State Government has already shortlisted 8.30 lakhs house hold in the State to achieve the target. The availability of sand at an affordable rate is one of the biggest challenges for the State now. Even though the average demand for sand per day is stated to be 9000 lorry loads, the State is in a position to supply only 2500 to 3000 loads of sand. The price of sand has sky rocketed to Rs.20,000/- per unit. We are conscious of the magnitude of the problem on account of the non-availability of River Sand.

Need for Surveillance

50. The Court Commissioners have observed that clearance from the State Environment Impact Assessment Authority (SEIAA) has been routinely obtained for river sand mining without divulging the material factors like existence of Bridge, Water supply system etc. The SEIAA without conducting field inspection and cross checking the details permitted quarrying. There is no mechanism now to ascertain as to whether the conditions imposed by the SEIAA have been complied with by the licensee. This issue must be addressed by the Government and SEIAA. Before granting permission for the sites, where sand is available, the SEIAA must visit the place indicated in the application for sand mining. The boundaries of the site must be shown in the mine plan and excavation must be within the boundaries. The Project Director must fix the pucca permanent pillar boundaries for excavation. The Project Director must ensure that stones are erected at 50 metre intervals along the boundaries with the marking of Shoal height, River Bed Height and depth to be excavated. The State must streamline the entire process right from site selection to operation of quarry and supply of sand in an ecologically friendly and environmentally sustainable manner. The entire quarry sites must have CCTV. There must be IP cameras set up in all the poclains for monitoring the overloading. The State must include environmental experts from reputed Central/State Institutions preferably from Indian Institute of Technology to be part of the District Task Force. It must be the responsibility of the concerned District Collector to oversee, monitor and streamline the functioning of the sand quarrying. The Taluk and District level task force must be sensitized. The officials of the Public Works Department and others involved in the process must be given training periodically in relation to environmental and legal aspects of sand quarrying. The Government must fix liability on officials, who are violating the conditions of the clearance or permitting excess quarrying. The jurisdictional Revenue , Police, Geology and Transport department officials must be taken to task in case of illegal quarrying or transportation of sand without permission. The State Appellate Forum constituted by the order in G.O.Ms.No.27 Industries Department dated 17 February 2015 must be a vibrant body. The Government must set up a centralised control room to monitor sand quarrying operations, one at Chennai and the other at Trichy as undertaken in the affidavit. The Centralised Monitoring through CCTVs must be taken up through live streaming from the control room. There must be a Customer Care Centre to receive complaints and take action on such complaints. The action taken report must be sent to the complainant and it must be available on line.