NAINITAL | Aug 17, 2017: In the past three months, as many as 32 cases have been registered and fines to the tune of Rs 7.62 lakh have been imposed on violators for carrying out illegal mining on the Gaula river bed. The illegal mining activities seem to have spiked since May 19, as the mining season ended on that day.

The forest department has also sealed two JCB machines, two pokland machines, seven small trucks and 11 tractors. People were using mules to ferry illegally mined river bed material since mining stopped officially on the Gaula river bed.

Deputy director, Rajpal Legha, said, “The fine was imposed under relevant Sections of the Mines and Minerals Development and Regulation Act 1957 and cases were also registered against violators. Action will be taken against them if they fail to deposit the fine amount within the stipulated the period of one month.”

Mining in the river bed includes picking up of river bed material (RBM) without digging or quarrying beyond permissible limits.

According to the guidelines, mining should not be done outside the demarcated area and quarrying of minerals should not be done below a depth of 1.5m on the riverbed. Moreover, no mining should be done near a 1 km radius from any bridge on the river.

Environmental activist, Ajay Singh Rawat, 70, said, “Illegal mining poses several problems while systematic legal mining is beneficial for rivers otherwise problems such as flooding of the river bed will take place. Only picking of the mountain debris which comes down to the river streams should be allowed and not quarrying of river beds.”

Mining officials told TOI that the Gaula river, which is lifeline of mining activities in the Kumaon division, provides around 54 lakh cubic meter river bed material every year. Apart from the loss of revenue the illegal practice poses threat to the ecosystem of the state as well as most parts of the Indo-gangetic plane, claim environmental activists. The unchecked quarrying of the Gaula catchment has been affecting the ecosystem of the area and it may eventually lead to incidents of massive landslides and soil erosion, environmental activists said.

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