NAVI MUMBAI | Nov 03, 2015: Illegal sand mining has become too widespread in the Navi Mumbai region. In the last two years, 38 people have been arrested under zone-2 jurisdiction for indulging in illegal sand mining activities along the creek. Cops have seized illegally excavated sand and machinery, collectively worth Rs 4 crore.

Cases of illegal sand mining reported at the seven police stations (see chart) in zone-2 jurisdiction have increased from 13 registered and 13 arrested in 2014 to 15 registered and 25 arrested in 2015.

S Suryavanshi, ACP (Panvel division), said, "In 2014, we achieved 100% detection rate in illegal sand mining cases. But in 2015, so far, we have been unable to detect three out of the nine cases registered at Kharghar police station, as the cops could not lay their lands on the accused. The police could only seize machineries and excavated sand from the spot as the accused escaped before the arrival of the raiding team."

A senior police officer said, "Until the revenue department implements a strict policy to prevent illegal sand mining, it is going to be difficult to solve the problem. As a compound wall cannot be built along the creek due to environment issues, the revenue department can at least take preventive measures by cutting off the access routes to the creek and destroying the boats confiscated during police raids."

The officer further added that as the illegally excavated sand is being used as construction material by miscreant builders, even without carrying out an analysis of its quality, it has resulted in buildings collapsing, which has claimed many people's lives in the recent past.

Deepak Akade, Panvel tehsildar, said, "Illegal sand mining in the creek in Panvel taluka is going on unabated. Insufficient manpower at the tehsildar's office is making it difficult for us to nab those involved in illegal sand mining. For Kharghar, there is only one talathi. So, we need to deploy talathis from other areas for combing operations in a particular area."

Environmentalist Sumaira Abdulali, convenor of Awaaz Foundation, said, "Sand mining should be checked through effective government measures such as monitoring sand at the point of use by builders and through 'E-tracking' from extraction till the end use. MoEF's new 'sustainable' sand mining guidelines does not address the issues of the mafias associated with sand mining and does not appear to be implementable."

(Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/)