- Goons fired and injured five villagers at a street dharna against illegal sand mining in Kashipur, Uttarakhand, in December 2023
- Last April, sand mafiosi allegedly chased and beat up forest officers who had tried to stop them mining in Banna Kheri, Udham Singh Nagar
Uttarakhand’s police stations are buried under complaints about illegal sand miners attacking anyone who comes in their way: foresters, villagers, government officials, even the police themselves.
Media reports, endorsed by state officials under cover of anonymity, speak of government-sand mafia collusion in stripping the state exchequer of crores in revenue.
Villagers tell anyone who would listen — and the police, who apparently wouldn’t — about the mafia’s sand-and-gravel-laden trucks and tractor trolleys whose roar keeps them awake at night and whose reckless drivers turn the hill roads into a menace.
It took a former chief minister and current MP from the ruling BJP to bring the racket before a wider audience, only for the state mining department to trash his concerns, as expressed in the Lok Sabha on Thursday, as “a misleading and baseless lie”.
Haridwar MP Trivendra Singh Rawat, who helmed Uttarakhand from March 2017 to March 2021, spoke of illegal sand mining in Dehradun, Haridwar, Nainital and Udham Singh Nagar districts that was going on “with the support of the local administration”. He begged the Narendra Modi and Pushkar Singh Dhami governments to act.
“The illegal mining and transport (of sand, gravel and stones) in the night has reached dangerous proportions not only in terms of law and order and the destruction of the environment but is also affecting the security and safety of the common man,” Rawat told the Lower House in Hindi.
“…The (sand mafia’s) overloaded trucks and tractor trolleys are damaging the roads, bridges and other structures. The movement of ordinary people (on roads) has become difficult (particularly at night).”
Rawat said the drunken drivers of these trucks and tractors had killed many people in recent years. “The problem is deepening because of the involvement of local government officers,” he said.
He sought a special task force, checkpoints, arrests,and punishment for the officials involved.
On Friday, asked about Rawat’s comments, Uttarakhand mining secretary Brijesh Kumar Sant told reporters: “Whatever was said was a misleading and baseless lie. It’s wrong (to say) that illegal mining is going on in Uttarakhand.”
He said the rising revenue collection from legal sand mining was proof that illegal mining had been contained.
Sant said the department had set itself a revenue target of ₹875 crore from sand mining in 2023-24 but collected ₹1,025 crore. He said ₹74.22 crore had been collected in fines from illegal miners caught by officials.
He said the state had 45 mining checkpoints, all equipped with night-vision cameras and automated surveillance systems.
However, the comptroller and auditor general’s report had in 2023 said the state had witnessed 37 lakh tonnes worth of illegal sand mining from 2017 to 2021, which cost the exchequer ₹45 crore in revenues.
A state government official who sought anonymity told The Telegraph that capital Dehradun, where the vigilance was expected to be most effective, was home to 10 illegal sand, gravel and stone stores in addition to 40 registered stores. Overall, the state had at least 1,000 such illegal stores, he added.
“The situation is pathetic in Haridwar, Nainital and Udham Singh Nagar,” he said.
He hinted at a further institutionalisation of the racket, saying the state government had recently outsourced to some private agencies the task of collecting revenues from the legal miners and fines from illegal miners.
“Many of these agencies were involved in illegal mining in the past,” he said.
Rajpal Legha, state additional mining director, had in December 2023 commented about the outsourcing system. Media reports had quoted him as saying the companies that secure the tenders “will have the right to collect revenues from miners and fines from those found involved in illegal mining”.
Speaking to this newspaper, a second government official confirmed: “Yes, we are developing this system. These companies (that will collect revenues) will deposit about ₹350 crore with the state government as security and develop their own infrastructure, including checkpoints.”
Lawless mob
News reports from the past couple of years highlight the impunity with which the sand mafia have been operating, and the inefficacy of the police in containing them.
- Last week, the estate officer of Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited in Haridwar, Sanjay Pawar, lodged a police complaint saying the sand mafia had tried to run over a group of company guards on being asked to stop mining on the PSU’s land. No arrests have been made yet.
- In January, Saraswati Mandal of Nirmal Nagar in Udham Singh Nagar had complained to the police that the mining mafia, active on a riverbed barely 50m from the village, had threatened residents when asked to stop. She said the miners’ tractor trolleys and trucks kept the whole village awake every night. The police are yet to register a case.
- A man named Praveen Singh Rawat lodged a complaint with Barkot police in Uttarkashi on February 27 saying Vinod Dobhal, Barkot nagar palika chief, and his friend Ankit Ramola had attacked him for alerting the police against illegal mining. No arrests have been made.
“My friend Vinod Rawat and I were driving from Dehradun to Uttarkashi when we saw illegal mining under way in the Jattha Pathera area,” Praveen had told local reporters after the incident.
“We immediately called the police. But soon, Dobhal and Ramola arrived and started fighting with us in the presence of the police. Sensing danger, we left the place. But they chased our car and attacked us.”
Vinod, who had earlier been arrested over a land deal, is the brother of the Independent MLA from Yamunotri, Sanjay Dobhal.
- Kashipur in Udham Singh Nagar has been witnessing dharnas and protests almost every month against the sand mafia. One such protest allegedly came under firing in December 2023.
The villagers say five people were injured but the police have reported bullet injuries to three: Vikram Jeet Singh (leg), Gulbuta Singh (head) and Jitendra Singh (palm).
“Suddenly, over 100 people carrying rifles and pistols reached our dharna site and fire on us,” Vikramjeet told local reporters a few days ago. A lone accused has been arrested
- At the illegal mining hotspot of Ramnagar in Nainital, the mafia fired at the police in December 2023. The police have seized four vehicles but made no arrests.
- In February 2023, the mafia pelted the police and mining officials with stones along the River Kosi and snatched back two seized tractor trolleys. The officers ran away to save themselves. No arrests have been made.