Big Expose: Submarines being used for illegal sand mining in MP, riverbeds get hollowed
Subhash Jain & Sravani Sarkar
Bhind/Bhopal: A scary picture of massive illegal sand mining from deep riverbed using submarine-like dredging implements has come to fore following a crackdown by the Bhind district administration on sand mines on banks of Sindh River in Gohad on Sunday.
In the crackdown following the murder of a farmer who tried to stop illegal sand mining in Kachchpura of Gohad, the district administration seized three submarine like mining equipment and five excavators engaged in illegal sand mining activities on the Sindh River on Sunday.
It was found that submarine like digging equipments were being used to dredge out sand from deep bed of the river, causing irreparable damage to the river flow that might cause it to dry up in not so faraway future.
This is the first time that such deep riverbed mining equipments have been seized by the administration, though it is a common knowledge in the area that such dredgers are used to take out maximum amount of sand from deep bed of the river.
The raids were conducted by teams supervised by district collector Ilayaraja T and superintendent of police Anil Singh Kushwah.
Even the licensed sand mines are prevented from using these equipments, but sources told NewsBits.in that at least 50 such submarine-like equipments are operative in 36 sand mines on Sindh River banks in Gohad.
On Friday, a farmer Ingej Kushwaha, 23, of Kachchpura was killed and two others injured when sand mafia opened fire on them following arguments related to illegal sand mining near the agriculture land of the victim. On Sunday, the administration cracked down on the mines in the area, and seized the mining equipments.
Additional superintendent of police Rajendra Verma said the killers of Kushwaha – Narendra, Motiram, Rameshwar and Udal Singh have been arrested by the Amayan police.
