Jonah Achumi
The Dimapur Deputy Commissioner’s recent ban on riverbed mining, apropos to the Regulation of Extraction of Riverbed Resources dated March 22,2016, on banning of using heavy machineries for extraction of river resources on the Chathe and the Dhansiri river truly deserves a thousand claps. With advent of time, the usage of modern machineries of course has become an inevitable part of our lives but the rampant, uncontrolled and unabated extraction of the sand, gravels and boulders without any compunction and a second thought for the environment and for the inhabitants of the local surroundings in days to come sure needed some immediate remedial measures and put some limit on this activity. It was just at the nick of time, better late than never. The specific use of riverbed mining has increased manifold in Nagaland over the last few decades. Mining of sands, gravels, stones and boulders from riverbeds and riverbanks across the state has seen an unprecedented rise. Each day truckloads of sands and gravels are extracted for a variety of reasons from filling lowlands to building houses,roads,nullahs, etc. One of the most important factors for hike in demand in recent years has been the growth of the real estate and construction industries. Riverbed mining causes erosion and often leaves the river-plains much more vulnerable to flooding because it allows loose landmass to be washed downstream, especially during the monsoons. The erosion and washing away of huge parts of soil during the monsoon season in Dhansiri and the Chathe river banks are some glaring examples. The last year’s temporary ban on vehicular movement on the bridge of the Chathe river near the CIHSR also speaks volumes of side-effect of this act as the bridge nearly gave away due to an unlimited extraction from the river below. So whom do we blame? Seems our people never know where to draw the line or have a limit with regard to everything we do.
Following a drastic rise in the construction industry the activity of riverbed mining has reached alarming proportions in several areas of not only our state but in many parts of our country and even the world. From forcing the river to change its course, to affecting the groundwater tables and adversely impacting the habitat of micro-organisms, the ramifications of excess riverbed mining are many. The impact that it has on environment and ecology is far greater and far graver, cautions environmentalists and water conservation experts. Sand holds a lot of water, and when it is mindlessly mined and laden on to trucks, large quantities of water is lost in transit. Sand is important for ground water recharge, on a riverbed it acts as a link between the flowing river and the water table and is part of the aquifer. The negative impact of unlimited mining far outweighs the economic benefits. There is a perception that sand and boulders are useless and rivers have a lot of sand. This is incorrect, because they are crucial for the sustained existence of the river and perform many functions.
The Uttarakhand floods witnessed the impact of tampering with the rivers and their resources when sand and boulders are removed in an unimpeded way using heavy machines, the erosion capacity of the river increases. Sand and boulders prevent the river from changing the course and act as a buffer for the riverbed. In the aftermath of the report,a documentary of the flood report said, ‘In Vishnuprayag the boulders that came down with the river water damaged a side of the dam and the waters spread out across causing heavy damage’. Unplanned and rampant removal of sand from riverbeds also amounts to destroying the habitat of biodiversity, as there are a lot of micro-organisms that are not visible and widely known, but are critical to soil structure and fertility. When we dredge sand, we literally take away their habitat. Excessive riverbed mining disturbs the equilibrium of a river channel. The impact that sand mining, which is simply but theft on environment and ecology, cannot even be calculated. Excessive in-stream sand mining also causes degradation of rivers, therefore, there has to be periodic assessment of how much sand can be sustainably mined.
Despite a Supreme Court order that prohibits sand mining without the requisite clearance from the required authorities and places limits on the quantities that can be mined, thousands of tonnes of sand is being illegally mined to meet the rising demand of construction industry and for extraction of mineral. The government, village councils and local authorities should exercise prudence when it comes to leasing out the riverbed for mining activities and also demarcate areas clearly and monitor mining through a suitable institutional mechanism. A high level sort of watchdog committee which includes environmentalists and civil societies must be formed and Laws has to be enforced in an efficient and unbiased way and decisive steps are to be taken for environmental solution here in our state. Large scale mining of sand and gravel take away several folds higher than the natural replenishments, has led to irreparable damages to the land, water, biotic and social and human environments related to many of the world’s river systems.
Excessive and uncontrolled riverbed mining may cause lowering of riverbed level as well as river water level resulting in lowering of groundwater table due to excessive extraction and draining out of groundwater from the adjacent areas. The water table level of Dimapur also is said to be decreasing drastically and water too has become heavily polluted over the recent years. Even the little rivers we have around are also disappearing and the few water bodies we had are all being filled up to accommodate the growing urban population. In the never-ending quest for growth and development all of this is being shored up by the rapidly dwindling banks and decreasing sizes of our little precious rivers of our tiny Nagaland. Nagas too need to put a hold on our random activities and adopt real sustainable measures with a pragmatic approach while dealing with our limited resources gifted by Mother Nature to our land. We hanker so much on petroleum and other natural resources. So isn’t this riverbed an important natural resource too?
Just a few years back ,I very often warned an old high school friend of mine, who was a member of a development board of a prominent area about the over extraction of stones and gravel from the river below it but all my reminders and warnings went on unheeded. I am no sooth-sayer but what I warned him came true, the bridge that served as a lifeline for around some hundred of villages nearly felled off.
Let us not all wait for those final moments.
