Hyderabad: The National Green Tribunal (NGT) Bench at New Delhi on Wednesday was dismayed over the unscientific method of sand excavation on the river bed of the Godavari in Telangana state. The Principal Bench headed by Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel felt that it was indiscriminate sand mining in the name of de-silting or dredging.
The Bench was dealing with the petition by RELA, an NGO, challenging mechanized sand mining in AP and TS.
As directed by the Bench, the Pollution Control Board of the Centre and Telangana state had placed a report before the Tribunal, about the status of the sand excavations on the Godavari River.
After perusing the report, the Bench was shocked over the Geographical changes on the river bed which affected the river’s passage as a result of the large extent of sand excavation.
Mr Karanam Sravan Kumar, the Counsel for the petitioners, submitted that more than 4.10 Lakhs cubic meters of sand was illegally excavated thro-ugh mechanized methods over 1400 Hectares of land without getting environmental clearance.
When the Bench enquired with the state government, Mr. A. Sanjeev Kumar, the special counsel for the state, submitted that some of the sand was being used for the construction of the Kaleshwaram project and said that some portion of sand was excavated during dredging.
However, the Bench found fault with the state government for not getting approval from the environmental department before going in for large scale sand mining.
The case has been adjourned to September 26, for further hearing.
