Change your benchmark of considering Bellary as the biggest mining scam in India. Compared to an estimated 8,000 hectares of legal and illegal mining in Karnataka, the area plundered in Gujarat maybe twice as much. And the value easily surpasses that of the Bellary mafia’s scam – even if we match up the same periods.
The investigation took our team-mates to various areas of the coastal Saurashtra in the past couple of years and weeks of mining google earth images to calculate the extent of the scam. All we learnt is that we know very little about this thriving illegal industry. The figures available with us are at best only conservative estimates.
Surprisingly, all the government agencies either pleaded ignorant or had no data. Even the government satellite images suddenly go blur over Porbandar and adjoining areas! The entire Porbandar mafia – which has been represented by over a dozen ministers in Gujarat’s cabinets over the years – owes its existence to the illegal mining for various cement factories and private consumers of limestone.
Barda hills on the outskirts of Porbandar and Jamnagar, which are now part of a sanctuary, continue to be gobbled and dug for mining limestone. Many a hills have ceased to exist and have turned flat land the size of multiple football grounds.
Unfortunately, the decades old satellite images with the government are nearly impossible to access – more so if they are revealing! We could study whatever material is available and compared the past imagery with the current – thanks to Google Earth! Over the years, the mining sites have gone deeper, their expanse much wider and the numbers rapidly swelling!
What is most agonizing is there is no one to stop this robbery. The government does not even realize the damage this is causing to the ecology. For government departments it is a question of mere revenue recovery; the environmental impact is not their concern.
For the forest department, it is not in their purview. The politicians thrive on this nexus and for locals it is an opportunity to make a quick buck. Mother earth is nobody’s loss!
What this unbridled lust can do has been aptly demonstrated in Madhavpur village of Porbandar district. Once an oasis in the desert, full of orchards and extremely good agricultural produce, this coastal village has now turned infertile and is actually surviving on fresh water tankers brought from neighbouring towns!
The Porbandar mafia unearthed the limestone belt on Madhavpur’s coast. These deposits had prevented the influx of saline sea water for time immemorial. In a few decades as the limestone deposits have vanished, sea water has turned the land barren. Entire coastal belt between Porbandar and Bhavnagar is a similar story.
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