Order of the National Green Tribunal regarding illegal sand mining in Jharkhand, 26/09/2023
Order of the National Green Tribunal in the matter of News item titled “Despite National Green Tribunal Ban, illegal sand mining is going on in Jharkhand” appearing in Prabhat Khabar dated 08.09.2023 dated 26/09/2023.
The Original Application is registered on the basis of a news item published in “Prabhat Khabar” dated 08.09.2023 disclosing the large-scale sand mining in Jharkhand. As per the report, there are 796 sand mining spots on riverbeds and the mining is permitted only in 27 spots, but illegal mining is going on in a large number of places. In the report, the district-wise details of the area, where the illegal sand mining is going on in violation of the Sustainable Sand Mining Guidelines, 2016 and Enforcement and Monitoring Guidelines of Sand Mining, 2020, has been disclosed.
As the above report raises the issue relating to violation of environmental norms, the tribunal directed a joint committee to be constituted comprising of Member Secretary, Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), Member Secretary, State Pollution Control Board (SPCB) and the Principal Secretary, Environment Department, State of Jharkhand. The committee will examine the issue of illegal mining at different spots disclosed in the media report in depth and submit the report along-with remedial measures before the Eastern Zone Bench of the NGT within ten weeks.