Madurai | June 28, 2017: The state government has been presenting manufactured sand (M-sand) as the panacea for a plethora of environmental issues pertaining to indiscriminate river sand mining. However, environmentalists fear that the proposal requiring huge volume of boulders as raw material for M-sand may result in another environmental disaster to hills and hillocks and the eco-system surrounding them.

Former Indian Forest Service Officer, V Sundararaju, who managed to thwart a couple of proposals to mine hillocks during his tenure, said that hills and hillocks are important terrestrial ecosystems. They play a crucial role in providing valuable ecosystem services. With the available soil, air and water they support a variety of plants and animals including micro-organisms. They provide shelter to various species of animals, birds, reptiles, insects and micro-organisms through grass, herbs, shrubs, climbers, creepers and trees that have grown on them. Most importantly they act as buffer to absorb rain water like a sponge releasing it into stream and springs gradually. "They are not mere source of minerals and metal but play the crucial role of balancing the environment. Indiscriminate exploitation of hills and hillocks will result in massive damage to eco-system", he said.

Renowned environmentalist R S Lalmohan from Kanyakumari also warned of impending environmental degradation if the hills and hillocks have to be mined for boulders required for M-sand. In Kanyakumari district alone 28 quarries had been permitted, some of them are in delicate Western Ghats. "Mining hills and hillocks for M-sand will result in chain reaction of destruction of nature. M-sand is largely used in Kerala but they import it from Tamil Nadu while protecting their hillocks and mountain ranges", he pointed out.

The environmentalists contented that the present demand for river sand is artificial and riddled with corruption. Every rule in the book is violated to mint money through river sand business. Instead of destroying hills and hillocks to produce M-sand, river sand which will replenish over a course of time should be mined scientifically. The present one meter depth could be increased to two feet but with careful monitoring and streamlining of river sand business in first place, they pointed out.

But M-sand manufacturers like K Chandrasekaran of Argunt Aggregates in Vellore say that chances of river sand replenishing appears remote without adequate water flow in the rivers of Tamil Nadu. Most of the rivers have been depleted of river sand and their chances of replenishing appear unlikely with the present water scenario of state, he reasoned. "Present contribution of M-sand towards the sand demand is miniscule but it is true that boulders are the depleting resource in M-sand manufacturing. In place of hillocks or hills, the boulders could be mined from ground since we get boulders beneath the earth and all types boulders could be turned into M-sand. Instead of shifting entire demand to manufactured sand, we need to look towards a perfect mix of river and M-sand with perfect checks and balances on their exploitation to arrive at a win-win situation", he stated.

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