Date | Aug 23, 2017:

In an attempt to crack down upon the illegal sand mafia operating in and around the river beds of Sabarmati, Orsang, Tapi and Narmada, the Gujarat government for the first time will be deploying drones for mining surveillance. On Tuesday, eight firms specialising in drone technology were at the Commissionerate of Geology and Mining in Udyog Bhavan in this regard. As a pilot project, the state government will deploy drones to monitor 60 kilometer river-bed between Gandhinagar and Ahmedabad where illegal sand mining is rampant.

“We will begin from the Sabarmati river bed. We have divided the river-bed into three zones, each having a length of 20 kilometers and width of two kilometers. It will be practically a 24 x 7 surveillance operation intended to curb illegal sand mining,” Roopwant Singh, the head of Commissionerate of Geology and Mining, the Government of Gujarat, told The Indian Express.

“Many parts of this river-bed is inaccessible. There have been instances, where our raid parties have come under attack. By using drone surveillance we plan to make our raids more effective and smarter,” Singh added. The government will not be buying any drones for this project, but will be hiring firms who can provide drone surveillance services.

The drones are expected to be in place in the next three weeks. “We also plan to extend this project to other river basins including that of Orsang, Tapi and Narmada,” the official added. Interestingly, though a low value mineral, sand forms 25 percent of the total minerals produced from Gujarat. In value terms it forms 10 percent of the total royalty earned annually by the state government from minerals.

There are about 1200 legal sand mines in Gujarat, that are located mostly on river beds. The total quantum of sand mined from every year is about 5.6 crore tonnes. However, of the 25,900 illegal mining cases registered in Gujarat during the last four years between 2013-17, the instances of illegal sand mining constitute 10-12 percent.

The state government is also actively considering to introduce “manufactured sand” as alternate commodity to natural sand. This will be manufactured from basaltic rock waste ( also knowns as black trap). “This will ensure availability of sand 365 days a year and will help rationalise the sand market. Usually sand mining is not allowed during the four months of monsoon,” said Singh.

The government is also considering to produce sand from dredging operations in ports and harbours and also using slag from steel plants, officials added.

(Source: http://indianexpress.com/)