Here the river flows the widest, with its banks 1.5 km apart, and is called Akhanda Cauvery.

In May,
when the flow is lean, the sand bed is exposed in most stretches of the river. Heavy cranes are at
work. They dig their metal arms deep into the riverbed, scoop out sand and load it onto trucks
waiting in line. A walk around the area presents a sordid picture: at many spots farmlands that were
once used to cultivate crops are now used to stock sand. Each sand quarry has 20-25 musclemen on
guard throughout the day. They intimidate and assault anyone who pauses to click a photograph. On
May 22 this year, this correspondent was forced to delete the pictures from her camera while
capturing sand mining. She was later chased by thugs in a car for at least an hour.

karur and Kulithalai are the places in Tamil Nadu where sand mining has been taking place for years.
About 60 per cent of the states sand requirement is met by the quarries in the basins of the Cauvery
and its tributaries. Those fighting illegal sand mining claim that mining takes place day and night
with six-eight machines in each quarry.

At least two-thirds of the trucks engaged in sand mining operations do not have government permit.
Moreover, no government official is present at the quarry after 5 pm. Due to these illegalities, the
riverbed in the Amaravathi and Cauvery basin has gone down by 8-10 metres over the years.

Cauvery and Amaravathi sand is of high quality, so indiscriminate mining has been going on for the
past many years, says N. Natarajan, former chief engineer at PWD and expert on rivers.

Unlike other states in India, sand mining is undertaken by the government in Tamil Nadu. All the
sand quarries in the state are under the direct control of the state Public Works Department (PWD).
This has been the practice since October 2003 when the state administration, led by J Jayalalithaa,
abolished sand mining by private contractors.

The government was forced to do so after an expert committee appointed by it under a court order
found that indiscriminate sand mining by private players since 1989 had caused huge damage to the
ecology, environment, water resources, agriculture and livelihood of people,

Says Christina Samy of Karur-based non-profit, Society of Women in Action for Total
Empowerment.

The expert committee formed in 2002, which included ecologists and geologists,
observed that sand mining as carried out by private contractors was haphazard and
chaotic. It claimed that mining led to erosion of river banks, widening of rivers and
depletion of ground water, damaged civil structures like bridges and affected
drinking water and irrigation projects. The committee recommended a single
government agency to ensure that sand mining is scientific and sustainable.
Subsequently, the state government amended the Tamil Nadu Minor Minerals
Concession Rules, 1959, and made PWD responsible for sand mining.

The government took up the responsibility in order to curb illegalities, augment state revenue and
ensure uninterrupted sand supply to the people at affordable prices. A decade later, the situation has
hardly improved. Activists allege the situation has worsened. The governments failure has not only
destroyed the ecology of the river basin and affected livelihood, but has also cost the state exchequer
crores of rupees in the past 10 years.

Rules violated

Every sand quarry in Tamil Nadu has an environmental clearance from the State Environment Impact
Assessment Authority (SEIAA). These quarries violate the Tamil Nadu Minor Minerals Concession
Rules, 1959, and the guidelines issued by the Ministry of Environment and Forests on December 24,
2013, besides a few court judgements regarding sand mining, says R Nandakumar, a lawyer from
Kulithalai who has been fighting against illegal sand mining for the past two decades.

As per the orders of the government, sand should not be mined beyond a depth of 1 metre; quarrying
is allowed only from 7 am to 5 pm; a truck should not be loaded with more than two units of sand (1
unit=2.83 cubic metre) per trip; the connecting roads to the riverbeds should be constructed with
sugarcane leaves and biodegradable material; all quarries must have an assistant engineer of PWD to
monitor mining. In 2010, the Madras High Court ruled that only two machines should be used in
each quarry, one for lifting sand and the other for loading it onto the trucks. These rules are hardly
followed.

This year, the high court on April 30 and the Supreme Court on May 9 banned in-stream mining in
18 of the quarries. The government and the contractors do not follow these rulings, points out
ThirumalaRajan, a lawyer at the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court.
Free hand to private players

Although the environmental clearances by State Environment Impact

The contract from 2003 to 2013 was given to the associates of O Arumugasami,
a Coimbatore-based businessman. The contractors are also permitted to set up
sand stockyards that act as second sales points.

says Nandakumar social activist

The cost of sand bought by 1000 Rs

The price they sell it to common 4500 Rs

Price of the sand when it reaches the 15000- 20000 Rs

It is the sand contractors who rule the state. The successive governments in
the state and political parties are hand in glove with them, points out L A
Samy, convener of Forum for Protection of Water and Livelihood Resources, an
umbrella organisation opposed to indiscriminate sand mining in the state.

No illegalities: PWD

To clarify the allegations against the government, Down To Earth contacted five
engineers at PWD who spoke on the condition of anonymity. Three of them
outrightly rejected all the allegations against the department. They say PWD is
a government agency and all the quarries function as per rules and regulations.
They assert that only two machines are deployed in every quarry and sand
dunes on the riverbed are removed to ensure smooth flow of water.

The other two engineers admit to gross irregularities in sand mining and claim that everybody
from the district collector to the police is aware of this. They, however, add that PWD officials
are helpless as the department is made a scapegoat by the government and political parties that
collude with contractors. PWD can only mine and sell sand but does not have the power to
penalise those who commit illegalities. For that, the department has to inform the revenue
officials, police and district collector. But whenever there is a scam, it is the PWD officials who
get suspended, they say. It is a double whammy if the officials speak to the media or raise their
voice against the illegalities. The moment they speak up, they will be replaced by those who
will dance to the tune of political leaders and contractors, says A Veerappan, a retired PWD
chief engineer.

Plundering of sand continues

Green lawyers point out despite environmental clearances, sand quarries lack scientific mining
plans. In 2012, the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court had ordered the closure of more
than 35 quarries in the Cauvery basin, including all seven quarries in Karur. Whenever a quarry
is closed after years of struggle and prolonged legal battles, another quarry comes up nearby
within no time, says R Karikalan, a farmer from Karur.

K K N Rajan, state vice president of the Tamil Nadu Water Supply and Drainage System
Employees Union, estimates that illegalities in sand mining have cost the state exchequer a loss
of Rs 30,000-Rs 50,000 crore. This looks like a huge scam and the matter should be
investigated by an independent agency, he adds.

Farms: once green, now barren

The Cauvery and its tributaries are the lifeline of at least 10 districts in Tamil Nadu. The rivers
were perennial till two decades ago. We used to grow paddy, turmeric, sugarcane, sunflower
and other crops with the water from the rivers, says R Ramasami, a farmer from
Karuppampalayam village in Karur. Now the rivers remain dry for half the year and the
groundwater level has gone down, Karikalan explains. Many farmers in the region have sold or
leased out their farmlands to sand contractors to be used as stockyards. GopalaDesikan, joint
secretary of the Cauvery Delta Farmers Welfare Association, points out that the irrigation canals
in the area have been rendered useless. Due to rampant sand mining,the river bed has gone
down, hampering the water flow through the canals, he says.

Demand for moratorium

Nandakumar says the governments failure to check illegal sand mining has not only threatened
the Cauvery, but all river basins in the state. It is becoming increasingly difficult to resist the
sand mafia which is backed by the government and political parties. Even the people are divided
on the issue as many youth are employed by the mafia, he adds.

Retired PWD engineers and green lawyers feel a moratorium on sand mining should be imposed
until scientific auditing of sand and assessment of ecological damages are done. They also
demand investigation into the loss of revenue. A few other measures proposed include a separate
sand budget every year, maintenance of sand stockyards by the government instead of private
parties, state permits to trucks involved in mining operations, manual mining of sand and a
committee under a high court judge and other specialists to monitor sand mining.
Sorry state of sand mining

The Madras High Court in 2002 ordered Tamil Nadu to set up an expert committee to look into the issue
sand mining

The committee found that indiscriminate sand mining had caused huge ecological damage and suggeste
agency to look after sand mining in the state to check the illegalities

The government banned sand mining by private contractors in 2003 and handed over responsibility to
Works Department (PWD)

Tamil Nadu is the only state in the country where the government undertakes sand mining

PWD signs contracts with private parties for lifting and loading sand, paving the way for illegalities

Private parties set up stockyards where they sell sand at much higher prices