New York: Millions of Indians have gazed in horror at videos sho-wing 24 cheerful engineering students wading in a tranquil stretch of the Beas River in Himachal Pradesh last month and then being swept to their deaths as the waters around them surged.
The water was released from a dam upstream, apparently to deposit sand on the riverbed for easy mining. That release, and the drownings it caused, have been attributed to the “sand mafia,” a nexus of corrupt officials and the sand miners they let loot a basically free natural resource. An essential ingredient in cement, sand has seen its value soar along with the fortunes of India’s equally corrupt construction industry.
The Supreme Court in India and its National Green Tribunal have ordered sand-mining operations to obtain clearances from the ministry of environment and forests... But these legal orders have had little effect. Authorities who try to crack down on illegal sand mining, and journalists, environmentalists or local farmers who try to document abuses, are regularly attacked with guns, knives and trucks that try to mow them down.
PM Narendra Modi campaigned on a promise of high economic growth and infrastructure development. His minister of environment and forests, Prakash Javadekar, has promised to accelerate clearances for industrial and extractive projects. With an already high demand for sand set to increase drastically, Mr Modi’s government should act quickly to make sure environmental clearances are more than mere rubber stamps. It should tackle the country’s sand mafia and make it safe for honest officials to enforce the law before more tragic accidents occur and more damage is done to the environment.
