DNA Special: How the menace of illegal mining is harming India

What would you do if some people stole some items from your house? You would immediately go to the police against this and ask the police to find your stolen goods? Any person would do the same.

But now imagine if some people steal the mineral wealth of your country, then what will you do? Then maybe you will forget after seeing this news in newspapers and news channels. 

Today, a DSP was killed by an illegal mining mafia in Nuh near the country's capital Delhi. DSP Surendra Singh had received information that illegal mining was being done by some people in this area on the Aravalli hills, after which he reached there with his team.

He parked his car in front to stop the accused riding in the dumper. But despite this, the accused killed DSP Surendra Singh by crushing him with a dumper. 
How illegal mining harms the country? 

According to a report by the Union Environment Ministry, between 2013 and 2017, 4,16,000 incidents of illegal mining were reported. According to this, there are 1 lakh incidents of illegal mining in the country every year. Every month 8,833, every day 294 and every hour 12 incidents, some river and hill of the country is dug illegally. The mineral wealth of the country is openly looted.

But the surprising thing is that most of the cases of illegal mining never reach the court or the police. In 2016, 1,07,609 cases of illegal mining were reported. But out of these, FIR was registered only in 6,033 cases. The web of the mining mafia is such that these people easily escape by bribery, hooliganism, collusion with government departments and police.

In 2016, the mining mafia stole mineral wealth worth Rs 1,326 crore in India, but it was not even discussed in the country.

Our country has army to fight terrorists, police and security forces to fight naxalites and extremists. But we do not have the strength which is needed the most today to fight the illegal mining mafia.

You can understand this from today's incident. The DSP who was crushed to death by a dumper, his only fault was that he stood like a rock to stop this mining mafia. He was a resident of Hisar district of Haryana and he was recruited as ASI in Haryana Police on July 12, 1994. Three months later on October 31, he was going to retire. But before that he was murdered. 

We feel that this whole matter is a direct challenge to the government, the state police system and the laws of this country. Illegal mining mafia has killed DSP Surendra Singh and stated with it that it will continue to loot the mineral wealth of the country. Even if they have to kill policemen for this.

The place where this incident happened in Nuh near Delhi is part of the Aravalli mountain range, which is counted among the oldest mountain ranges in the world. The Aravalli hills also affect the monsoon of North India. Rare trees, animals and birds are also present on these hills.

In 2002, the Supreme Court had banned any kind of mining in the Aravalli hills. But in spite of this, the Aravalli hills are still being dug up in Rajasthan and Haryana because marble, red stone and sand are found from these hills.

In 2018, a Supreme Court-appointed committee had reported that between 1968 and 2018, i.e. in these 50 years, 25 percent of the Aravalli hills have disappeared due to illegal mining. Imagine this mafia sold 25 percent of the Aravalli hills, but despite this, this issue never became an issue in our country. And nothing could be more unfortunate than this.

The whole system is responsible for this. For this the Government of Haryana is responsible, the Chief Minister of Haryana is responsible for this, the Haryana Police is responsible for this, the Forest Department is responsible for this, other concerned departments and big officials are responsible for this.

Strict laws are made for any kind of reforms in our country but they are never strictly implemented. For example, last year in 2021, the Indian government increased the punishment in such cases from two years to five years to check illegal mining. But despite this, the process of hollowing out rivers and mountains did not stop. This illegal mining is done in an organized manner. The whole gang i.e., mafia works behind this.

These people give bribes to government officials and departments for illegal mining. The police are also accused of collusion with them. In most of the cases, FIR is not even registered. In this way, these people loot the mineral wealth of crores of rupees every year from this country.

Like America has weapons, China has technology, Russia has crude oil and natural gas. In the same way, India has huge reserves of mineral materials, but India has never been able to handle this wealth systematically. Sometimes there was a coal scam in our country and sometimes a sand scam happened in the name of sand mining. That is, India could not take advantage of this mineral wealth.

The mining industry in India is worth about Rs 3 lakh crore. In the year 2020-21, it was Rs 2,94,644 crore.

95 different types of minerals are produced in India. Apart from this, India has the largest coal reserves in the world. Apart from this, India comes fourth in the whole world in terms of iron production. There are also huge reserves of many minerals like Bauxite, Chromite, Limestone in the country. This mineral wealth is regulated in our country under the Mines and Minerals Act of 1957.

Under this, permission is required from the Central and State Governments, Ministry of Environment, Forest Department and other departments for mining. In return, the government also has to pay the prescribed Royalty Fee for mining. But despite this, sand and other minerals are openly mined illegally in different states. And the whole Nexus works behind it.

You will be even more surprised to know that today if our country is forced to struggle with floods every year, then one of the reasons for this is illegal mining. Illegal mining mafias target rivers and mountains, while neglecting the environment. Due to this, rivers get damaged and disasters like floods take a formidable form. In August 2017, the Supreme Court had said that if any company does illegal mining without the permission of the environment ministry, then 100 percent recovery will be made from it. That is, if sand worth 10 crores is extracted, then that company will have to pay 20 crores as fine. It's not just about illegal mining here. But here it is also a matter of law and order.

Illegal mining mafia is so powerful that they do not back down from taking anyone's life. According to a report, in the year 2019 and 2020, a total of 193 people died during illegal sand and clay mining in India. Of these, 95 people died by being buried under the soil while 5 journalists and social workers were murdered. Apart from this, 11 government officers were also put to death during this period.

How serious this problem is, you can understand it with an example from Karnataka. Illegal mining in Karnataka alone has caused a loss of more than Rs 50,000 crore to the exchequer. That is, whether it is the Garo hills of Meghalaya, the Yamuna river belt of Delhi, Haridwar with the Ganges river, be it Narmada and Chambal river of Madhya Pradesh, Kosi river of Bihar, Godavari and Krishna river of Andhra Pradesh or Kaveri river of Tamil Nadu, every river in India is currently facing the problem of illegal mining.

According to a United Nations report, India needs 700 million tonnes of soil or sand every year. And this need will increase in the coming time. But the illegal mining mafia is digging India's chest and looting it every day and the whole country is silent on this loot.

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