Nearly Every South Indian State Has A Sand Mining Problem

Months after the Enforcement Directorate (ED) conducted statewide raids against illegal river sand mining in Tamil Nadu, there are now multiple reports regarding similar illegalities in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.

Telangana’s Chief Minister Revanth Reddy has stated that a new sand mining policy will be made for the state as the present policy was encouraging corruption. He said that a surprise check undertaken recently found that 25 per cent of the sand being transported was illegal and that he had ordered the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) to take immediate action.

In neighbouring Andhra too, the opposition has been targeting the Yuvajana Sramika Rythu Congress Party (YSRCP) government led by Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy over the issue.

The Centre recently informed the Andhra Pradesh High Court that a committee, which conducted a study on the directions of the southern bench of the National Green Tribunal (NGT), had concluded that illegal river sand mining was prevalent in the state and it had collected photos and fake bill books.

The ED’s investigation in Tamil Nadu is still underway. It recently seized around 200 excavators and froze the bank accounts of some of the sand contractors. Earlier, in a statement, the probe agency had informed that the total sale value of the excess sand mined illegally in the last 1-2 years was Rs 4,730 crore.

Apart from illegal river sand mining, there is also the issue of beach sand mining.

Some of the minerals mined are Ilmenite, rutile and sillimanite. While these are not as well known as the common minerals such as iron ore, copper etc, and thus go under the radar, many of these are used as in industries like paint and ceramics and thus have a ready market both in India and abroad.

Monazite, a radioactive mineral, which is used to make thorium, that India plans to use in the third stage of its nuclear energy programme, is also one among them.

The Tamil Nadu government in December submitted before the Madras High Court that 16.04 lakh tonnes of beach sand minerals had been illegally transported between 2018 and 2022 in spite of the ban imposed in 2013.

The court had taken up the matter after a public interest litigation (PIL) was filed by geologist, G Victor Rajamanickam, in 2015 alleging that beach sand minerals worth Rs 1 lakh crore had been illegally exported out of the country.

The PIL was later converted into a suo-moto case by the court. The next hearing is scheduled on 11 March.

In Kerala, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s daughter, Veena, is alleged to have received monthly payments from Cochin Minerals and Rutile Limited (CMRL), a company involved in mining beach sand minerals. The issue is being probed by the Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO), which works under the Ministry of Corporate Affairs at the Centre.

While a number of solutions have been proposed like the increased use of technology for monitoring, it is indeed difficult to solve the problem. 

The political class in these states as well as others is highly invested into illegal sand mining because it gives them the ability to generate a continuous stream of unreported income to finance their needs and people who raise their voice are often harassed or killed.

Journalist Sandhya Ravishankar, who wrote articles about beach sand mining baron S Vaikundarajan and his company V V Minerals was subject to online harassment and rape threats. A defamation case was also filed against her. She later won the case.

In April 2023, Lourdhu Francis, a village administrative officer (VAO) was murdered in Thoothukudi district by the sand mafia as he was reporting their activities to the police.

The probes by the ED in Tamil Nadu, the NGT’s directions in Andhra Pradesh, the SFIO’s probe in Kerala and the decision of the Telangana government to come up with a new and better policy, are thus all steps in the right direction.

Sand mining is desperately in need of a clean up, not just in these states but all over the country.