Joint Committee report on illegal sand mining, Nagpur, Maharashtra, 05/07/2022
Joint Committee Report by MPCB in OA No.30/2022 (WZ) (Gaurav Ashok Dhote V/s Mining Officer, Nagpur & Ors.) The matter is about allegations against the District Authority, Nagpur for inviting tenders to carry out sand mining activities without replenishment plan, causing damage to Kanhan river ecology.
The issue raised in the application is non-compliance of the guidelines issued in Sustainable Sand Mining Guidelines 2016 (SSMG 2016) as well as Enforcement and Monitoring Guidelines for Sand Mining, 2020 (EMGSM 2020) and not to enforce the mechanism for the preparation of DSR, environment management plan, replenishment studies and mines closure plan.
During site visit of Saholi Reti ghat, taluka Parseoni illegal manual excavation of sand was observed. At the Gosewadi Reti ghat, taluka Saoner it was observed that sand mining was carried out beyond 0.5 m depth as permitted. The miner had mined an excess quantity of sand. Further, mining was not carried out by manual method but by poclain machine/JCB - as the signs of wheels on sand and of scratches in sand pits were found and also quantum of sand mined. "It is not possible to mine 7420 brass sand in about 10 days by manual method," and this was in violation of EC conditions, the report to the NGT said.