View
271
Download
6
Category
Preview:
Citation preview
EVS PROJECT
RIVER SAND MINING IN THE
NEYYAR RIVER BASIN
SUBMITTED BY A.J MOSES - B090482ME CHAITHANYA RAMKUMAR V - B090476ME ARUN VIJAYAN - B090514ME ANSU U - B090346ME
AKHIL P.A - B090413ME
INTRODUCTION
Rivers are India‟s lifeline and enjoy a special place in prayers and its traditional practices. Many forms of aquatic flora and fauna are sustained by rivers. However, its sheer utility is leading to its own downfall. Rivers are increasingly being linked to several social, environmental, and political issues. It is observed that the removal of sand from the riverbeds has exceeded the natural replenishment, making it unsustainable. Demand for sand is very high in some states like Kerala due to increasing construction demands. Mining has eroded riverbanks, lowered river channels and also weakened engineering structures like bridges. The rivers of Kerala have considerably influenced its historical and cultural development of the people of Kerala. They influence in one way or other the history and cultural life of the people of Kerala. Several places of historical and cultural importance are located on the banks of the rivers.
In nature, sand occurs as river channel and floodplain deposits, fluvio-glacial deposits, aeolian (wind) deposits, lake deposits and nearshore-marine deposits. Among these sources, sand from rivers is largely being used over the years for meeting its demand in construction industry. As a result of overexploitation, river sand in Kerala is in short supply and the construction industry finds difficulty in achieving targets. This warrants the imminent need
for alternatives to river sand to bridge the gap between demand and supply. It is imminent that measures are to be taken to minimize the use of sand by adopting technologies with low sand/no sand content in construction sector.
IMPORTANCE OF RIVER SOURCES
In earlier days, mining of sand from rivers was well within the natural replenishments. However, the increase in the mining of river sand irrecoverably damaged the river banks, the ecology and hydrologic setting of the river basin. The problems related to sand mining are acute in Kerala as the rivers in the State are short with limited sand resource. River has an important role in the life cycle of many native animals, plants, birds, fishes, myriad of insects and other tiny creatures. People depend largely on rivers for domestic and agricultural purposes. It is unfortunate that this life support system is degrading fast due to various kinds of human interventions. Among the interventions over exploitation of construction grade sand from river beds (instream sand mining) and their overbanks (floodplain sand mining) is the most disastrous as the activity threatens the very existence of the life support system. The situation is rather alarming in Kerala State, where the rivers are short with limited instream and floodplain sand resources and very high population density. Lack of adequate data base on these issues is a major set back in chalking out strategies for the conservation / management of rivers in the State.
CHARACTERISTICS AND STRUCTURE OF RIVERS
Rivers, being very dynamic, are subjected to changes when the variables that shape and maintain their morphological form are altered. The variables include velocity, slope, width, depth, discharge, size and composition of sediments, and their concentration. Sediment is an essential, integral and dynamic part of river basins. The stability of rivers is the outcome of a delicate balance existing among stream flow, sediment supply from
catchments, stream channel form and other physico-chemical and biological processes operating within the river system. Stream channels transport sediments and water from headwaters to river mouth, systematically depositing and eroding, abrading and breaking sediment particles during the transport process. River sediments include various size grades of particles including such as boulders, cobbles, pebbles, granules to finer sands, silts and clays. Generally high density particles concentrate in low order or upstream part and the finer particles progressively deposit towards the downstream according to the sediment sorting capacities of the river. So, in general gravel- sized particles are more abundant in the middle reaches of river systems, while sand-sized and smaller grains predominate in the lower reaches. River sand is one of the important ingredients in construction sector. River sand is a non renewable natural resource in terms of human life. Whatever replenishment occurs in the lowland part of rivers is derived mainly from the reworking of older floodplain deposits evolved through a process that take thousands of years. Excessive mining has adversely affected the general public, who depend on rivers as a basic necessity. The sand is extracted either directly from the active channels or from floodplain areas and the former is known as „instream mining‟ and the latter as „flood plain mining‟ .
RIVER SAND MINING
Sand mining has been going on in many rivers continuously without any regulations, for long, resulting in changing landscapes and affecting flow regimes. Huge craters are created in the riverbed, deviating river flow from its actual course, destruction of river sides etc are observed at many sites. Gradual changes observed for a number of years in some selected rivers of Kerala are
studied along with changes in river flow and cross-sections. Correlation of these results with the system‟s behaviour is attempted. This identifies with the morphological and environmental impacts of this ongoing activity and cautions for a scientific approach to the issue. It invites attention of policy makers for an integrated and planned approach to river management and also suggests reviewing ownership of water resources, policy and administration. It also proposes governance systems meeting current needs from an environmentally safe angle. The indiscriminate and unscientific sand mining, has become a serious environmental threat to the river systems of Kerala. Environmental destruction is the price mankind has to pay for unsustainable development. Alarming increase in indiscriminate sand mining has caused serious damage to the river system of Kerala. As the demand for sand increases in industry and construction, leads to indiscriminate mining of sand from the rivers. Unlike the other rivers of India, the rivers of Kerala are too small in size and in resource capability. The quantum of sand mined every year is several fold more than what flows down and accumulate in the riverbeds. This situation creates a serious environmental threat to the riverine system. On the other hand sand is an essential construction material and it gives employment to a large sector in our state. So the complete banning of sand mining is not a practicable solution to this multidisciplinary problem. A balanced amount of sand mining enables the river to maintain its stability.
IMPACTS OF SAND MINING
Although sand mining is categorised under the list of one of the most potential disaster capable of annihilating the regenerative property of the land topography, it also has some kind of positive impact to a certain extent. Some of the most important positive and negative impacts are
listed below. Even though the process being destructive, some kind of control reined on the process may help to prevent some potential disasters from occurring.
Negative Impacts Taking into consideration the places of occurrences of the adverse environmental impacts of river sand mining, the impacts can be broadly classified into two categories namely Off- site impacts and On-site impacts. The off-site impacts are, primarily, transport related, whereas, the on-site impacts are generally channel related .The On- site impacts are classified into excavation impacts and water supply impacts. The impacts associated with excavation are channel bed lowering, migration of excavated pits and undermining of structures, bank collapse, caving, bank erosion and valley widening and channel instability. The impacts on water supply are reduced ground water recharge to local aquifers, reduction in storage of water for people and livestock especially during drought periods, contamination of water by oil, gasoline and conflicts between miners and local communities. The reports show that depletion of sand in the streambed and along coastal areas causes the deepening of rivers and estuaries, and the enlargement of river mouths and coastal inlets. It may also lead to saline-water intrusion from the nearby sea. Thus instream sand mining results in the destruction of aquatic and riparian habitat through large changes in the channel morphology. Impacts include bed degradation, bed coarsening, lowered water tables near the streambed, and channel instability.
Positive Impacts Sand deposition eventually leads to reduction in conveyance capacity of river leading to flood in rivers. Proper dredging of sand keeps the bed at the desired level. Thus if dredging is not done, due to continuous deposition of
sand, the depth of river may get reduced. This will result in flooding of water and loss of properties. It also facilitates the navigation in the channel as sand is the main fine aggregate in concrete. Riverbeds are major sources of clean sand. An investigation conducted by CESS made it clear that it is very evident that there is a change in traditional housing of People of Kerala. It is observed that the demand of sand for house construction has been increased drastically since early 1970‟s which is reflected well in exponential rise in the number of terraced and tiled houses.
PRACTICE OF SAND MINING IN KERALA
In Kerala, river sand is manually scooped from the river bed and collected in a country boat anchored in the river. The sand is then brought to the river bank and stored in a stocking yard close to the bank, called „kadavu‟. The sand thus stocked is then delivered to the construction site in lorries. The volume of river sand that can be carried in a standard lorry is 4-5 m3. The local bodies within which the „kadavus‟ are located are empowered to regulate and control the quarrying of river sand within it. The government of Kerala has formulated and put into practice a number of measures for the control and regulation of quarrying of river sand. Now, the sale of river sand at the „Kadavus„ is strictly on a quantitative basis in terms of lorry loads with proper passes issued for each lorry load. A set of labourers are registered for each „kadavu‟, and they alone are permitted to quarry river sand from that „kadavu‟. The permitted quantum of quarrying of river sand in each „kadavu‟ is based on the recommendations of experts in the field. The price of a lorry load of sand that is to be collected at the „kadavu‟, and the manner in which that amount is to be apportioned among wages to labourers engaged in sand quarrying, royalty to the Mining and
Geology Department of the Government of Kerala, credit to the River Management fund and income to the local body are all collectively decided by a District Level Expert Committee with the District Collector as the Chairman. The charge levied for a standard lorry load of sand at the „kadavu‟ is 10000 Rupees.
STUDY AREA
We selected Arakunnu, one of the prominent mining sites
in the course of River Neyyar as our area of study. The
Neyyar River is the southern-most river of Kerala State. It
emerges from Agastya hills at about 1865m above MSL and
debouches into Arabian Sea after flowing a distance of 56
Km. The Neyyar River basin lies between 8o 15‟ to 8o 40‟ N
latitudes and 77o00‟ to 77o20‟ E longitude in
Thiruvananthapuram District. The basin has a total area of
483 sq. km covering 24 panchayats. The main tributaries of
the Neyyar are Chit Ar, Kall Ar, Karavali Ar, Mull Ar,
Aruvikod Thodu, Maruthur Thodu, Edamalai Thodu and
Talakke thodu. The basin receives an average annual
rainfall of 1542 mm. Physiographically, the river basin can
be divided into midlands (8-75m) and lowlands(less than
8m) ;( CESS, 1984). The Neyyar river basin mainly comprises
of three different lithological units, i.e. Archaean formation
in the Upper region, the Archaean formation except
quartzite of khondalite group in the Middle region and
coastal sand and alluvium, sandstone and clay with lignite
intercalation of Warkalli (Varkala) formation and quartz
feldspar hypersthene granulite, charnockitic gneiss and
hypersthene diopside gneiss of charnockite group in the
Lower region. The area experiences tropical humid climate
with an average annual rainfall of about 3300mm.The
temperature varies from 200c to 390 C. Humidity is high
(more than 80%) during the monsoon period.
The map showing the Neyyar River Basin is given below.
METHODOLOGY
The location of the sand mining sites are located
through the google maps imagery. Primary and secondary
data available are collected and they are used as references
for making the required data regarding the problem. One of
the 9 major illegal sand mining sites in the river course is
Arakunnu, has been visited by us on the day October 2nd.
Two guides, Dr R. Anilkumar (Associate Professor) and
Shaji Johnson (Assistant Professor) of the Geography
department in University College guided us in the study of
the area and explained the problem of the area. Some
photographs on the area have been taken by us. We also did
an interview with the local residents and studied the
problem they have been encountering with the sand mining
and the sand mafia involved in the area. We have seen
some of the damaged structures in the area as well as those
structures like road bridge and railway bridge which are
vulnerable to threats.
GENERAL INFORMATION ON THE
PROBLEM AREA
River sand is mined extensively from the lower course
of the Neyyar River, stretching for about 30 KM from
Aruvippuram in the north to Poovar in the south. All the
sand mining locations of the basin are within this 30 KM
stretch. Aruvippuram, Chemparathivila, Palakkadavu,
Arakkunnu, Olathani and Poovar are the major sand
mining sites in the Neyyar River basin. Among these,
Olathani, Arakkunnu and Palakkadavu are the sand
mining sites selected for the present investigation. The sand
mining locations are locally known as „Kadavus' and the
selected locations, Olathani, Arakkunnu and Palakkadavu
have length of 2.2 Km, 2.9 Km and 1.6 Km respectively. In
stream sand mining as well as flood plain mining is
prevalent in these areas.
OCTOBER 2nd (the day of visit)
We visited Arakunnu, one of the main sites for illegal
sand mining in the Neyyar river basin. It was the
downstream portion of Neyyar dam. Upon arrival we saw
from a distance a set of boats on the far side of the river
bank. There was heavy activity going on there. A group of
workers were busy plunging long poles into the river bed
and another group were getting lowered into the water
holding onto the poles. They could be seen coming out after
sometime with pails of mud. Our guide explained that the
poles were used to loosen the consolidated soil from the river
bed and then the workers took deep breaths and plunged
into the water holding onto the poles and would collect as
much as mud during the time they could hold their breath.
Our guide Dr R. Anilkumar , an Associate Professor in
Geography explained that the river had a width of 72m
from bank to bank. But due to continuous mining of the
lateral banks of the river the width of the river is now
increased to about 142m. Due to the heavy inundation of the
bank by the river 14 houses got destroyed since the year
1990. Nearly 50 coconut trees were uprooted.
The type of sand found in the river bank is a mix of alluvial
and silt. There is also the availability of soil which is used
for making bricks. So it was no wonder that we could see a
couple of smoking brick kilns (or chullas in Malayalam)
close by. When we asked how they can smuggle this illegal
sand and bricks , our guide remarked that they have an
alternate route through private properties free of
checkposts and every day around 50 mini lorries carrying
50 cubic feet of sand each illegally. The workers are paid
high wages because of their dangerous and arduous
endeavour. It is reported during the investigation that, Just
the day before we arrived , on the October 1st there was a
police raid and a fraction of the boats were destroyed. Upon
asked why the entire set of boats were not seized and why
the mining is still continuing and why the secret routes
were not cordoned off, he gave off a short laugh and said
“But of course, the police are also involved. And this was
just to fool the public that they are taking some action.” We
are discussing the problem in detail below. Studying things
in the text books and studying things by visiting the sites is
quite a different experience because seeing is more effective
than reading. It broke our hearts to see the destruction of
the topography and also the structures like houses which are
under serious threat under the effects of sand mining.
SAND EXTRACTION IN DETAIL
The sand is quarried with the help of small traditional
Indian style boat in which has a low lateral dimension
compared to its longitudinal dimension. Two or three people
get into the boat at a time and they use a long pole made of
wood about 10-12 metres long to check the depth of the river.
Then a person dives into the water rapidly by sliding
through the pole and carry some amount of sand in the
basket they carry and quickly resurface and collects it on
the boat. This is quite a risky profession yet some people are
willing to take the risk because of the money involved.
People of almost young age to old age take part in these
activities. There have been cases of people drowning while
doing the diving. The sand consisting of silt is separated
from the clay portion of the sand by washing. This sand is
carried to the lorry which can hold about fifty cubic feet of
sand.
Problems encountered in the place
1) Ground water depletion
The removal of sand from the river bed increases the velocity of the flowing water; the distorted flow-regime eventually erodes the river banks. Beside these on-site effects, the off-site effects are also quite lethal. Sand acts like a sponge, which helps in recharging the water table; its progressive depletion in the river is accompanied by sinking water tables in the nearby areas, adversely impacting people‟s daily lives, even their livelihood. As a result the wells in the locality had little or no water. The hand pumps stopped working. When groundwater is depleted, the effects on the landscape and the people are drastic. Agriculture is adversely affected. Furthermore in the worst case scenario ,"Cones of depression" are formed . This happens when too much water is drawn out of a water table without letting it recharge and a large area of the land sinks in. "Sink holes" may also form when an underground cavern or channel collapses and creates a crater in the earth‟s surface. The Farmers in the locality are reconsidering their occupation. But what else can they do .The people involved in this mafia are trying to coerce them into selling their land by offering substantial sums of money. As a result
many have yielded , but a few stay put. But they are in perpetual fear and are highly apprehensive of their future.
2) Houses getting destroyed
Around 14 houses vanished from the area. We visited a
family residing in the vicinity. The old lady in the house
was vehemently saying that during the monsoon season, she
got the fright of her life when she saw that the water level
was rising rapidly. “ As I went around the backyard of my
house, I looked down and saw that the water level has risen
to such an extent that any time her house was in danger of
getting flooded. And looking at the waters rising rapidly, I
could not do anything but cry for help. But It was in vain”.
When asked whether the sand mining has anything to do
with the water level rising, the man explained that they it
has everything to do with the water level rising. “This you
see here, pointing to his house, is our second house. Our old
house got destroyed 20 years back. We had plenty of land
and kunthirikam groove. But now, pointing at a bare patch
of land with nothing, but few yam stalks, all of it is gone.
Now all that remains is a meagre eight to ten cents. Our
house is standing on nought but loose soil. And any day it
may get washed away. And the little that we have that also
will be lost.”
3) Formation of Ox-Bow lake
An oxbow lake is a U-shaped body of water formed
when a wide meander from the main stem of a river is
cut off to create a lake. This landform is called an oxbow
lake for the distinctive curved shape, named after part of
a yoke for oxen. The word "oxbow" can also refer to a U-
shaped bend in a river or stream, whether or not it is cut off
from the main stream.
An oxbow lake is formed when a river creates a meander,
due to the river's eroding the bank through hydraulic action
and abrasion/corrosion. After a long period of time, the
meander becomes very curved, and eventually the neck of
the meander will touch the opposite side and the river will
cut through the neck, cutting off the meander to form the
oxbow lake.
Such kind of Ox-bow lake got formed. And the main reason
is the illicit mining of sand and the subsequent deposition of
sand to form a small islet in between the main river and the
lake. As a result the river ecosystem got disturbed. There is
formation of water hyacinth , algal growth and the
associated problem of eutrophication in the lake.
4) Destruction of ecosystem
The riverine ecosystem is under serious threat due to the
mining activites taking place in the river. Many of the
aquatic organisms in the river have already been destroyed.
A long time back this region of was known to have
sufficient fish but, now the life in the ecosystem has been
extinguished due to these activities because of the disrupt in
the food chain and the ecological imbalance.
5) Decline of moral ethics
The money the people obtain through this illegal
activity is primarily wasted through alcohol consumption.
None of the money is used for developmental activities or
for the social welfare. This disrupts the moral values of the
people and finally to the destruction of the ethics of the
society. This can lead to commitment of insane acts. Thus
the money the people earn through sand mining is of no use.
Interview with M.r Vinod Kumar and family
House destroyed in 1978.
Nearly now have just a meagre 8 or 10 cents. They are very
much apprehensive of the imminent collapse of the bridge.
Your occupation , sir?
Mainly I am working as a carpenter in Wayanad. I
also used to cultivate kunthirikam, tapioca,arecanut but
now I lost all these crops because ever since sand mining
took place I lost my four cents of land that had these crops.
Our soil is eight metres deep. It consists of different layers
namely the top soil, yellow sand, panchara sand .
What are the other problems faced by you ?
Look, this is my second house newly constructed. My
old house got eroded in floods in the 1978.Our soil fertility is
lost. We can‟t even draw water from our well. You can see
for yourself what is the level of water in the well. Also our
hand pump stopped working. Once during the monsoon
season when the dam was opened, the flow was so strong
that it took away a chunk of the land. This you can see in
our backyard and that night the water was rising so
rapidly that our newly constructed house was in danger of
flooding. Besides, the railway bridge you see a little more
than three hundred metres away, well It may collapse one
day.
Did you complain to the respective authorities of
this illegal mining?
Of course, but whenever I go, there I am sent from one
department to another and besides they pay no attention to
a poor carpenter like me. A few days earlier some
policemen came and destroyed a few boats. They come
occasionally like this and do a raid , but after a few days
the mining starts all over again. Whenever they approach
the concerned authorities they are asked to go from one
person to another.
Did the miscreants ask you to sell your land?
Yes, they approached us a dozen times. There used to be
fourteen other houses in this neighbourhood. But each one of
them sold their land a total of around ten cents. And they
all after receiving the money relocated to somewhere else.
The former approached me with ten thousand rupees. But I
refused. So this time they upped the ante to one lakh rupees.
If I also give in to them then this land will also disappear
and most importantly it will hasten the collapse of the
bridge yonder. It is because the river turns a bend round
their land before approaching the bridge , so if their land is
also mined then automatically the bridge becomes
vulnerable.
FUTURE CONSEQUENCES
It is highly probable that, if this sort of unscrupulous
sand mining continues the railway bridge would collapse in
a few years from now. The remnant of the houses that are
there will also vanish. Either the whole community will
perish or they will be relocated with poor rehabilitation and
out of them only a very few will be able to regress. The
oxbow lake may grow in size because of further sand
mining and the remaining portion of land together with the
rare species of kunthirikam trees will be lost. The lives of the
people living in these areas are under constant threat and
this will prevail unless the government takes direct action
against these issues which is highly unlikely because of the
corrupt and lethargic nature of the political system. There
is a chance of high degree of moral decline in the future
because of increase in alcohol consumption and quarrels
involving the illegal sand mining. The topography of the
land can change so much that it will be really hard to
believe that the pristine beauty of the place which was
revered will be shattered to oblivion because of the
unscrupulous and illogical actions carried out by some of
the natives of the area. The railway bridge and also the
road bridge is under threat. If the mining continues in the
same pattern there is bound to be the collapse of these
structures. The railway bridge is constructed
unscientifically so there is a greater risk to it due sand
mining. Let‟s pray that the authorities responsible for the
area may not turn blind eye towards the problem of this
place and do some actions which may curb this
unscrupulous activity.
POLITICAL FRAMEWORK
The root cause of this problem can be traced to the
greed in money of some of the higher ups in the society and
the unethical acts carried out by them to satisfy their
insatiable greed for money. Very high level of corruption
exists in the government and police governing the area. So
this problem can only be solved if the topmost sector of the
government takes direct action in purging the wide
network of corruption existing at different levels. The local
police near these areas are turning blind eye towards all the
illegal activities. Once in a while the police destroy the
mining facilities to a minimum extent to show that justice is
being carried out to the public. But the problem keeps on
aggravating a lot as the days go by.
SUGGESTIONS FOR PREVENTION
Proper education of the people is one way in which you
can tackle the problem. A better understanding on the
problem through scientific methods can help the people to
understand the future threats which will be caused by the
sand mining. Curbing this activity through government
intervention seems to be impossible because of the
corruption existing in various levels. Only the joined effort
by the people can be instrumental in tackling this problem.
Suppression of the sand mafia and well protection given to
people can help the people to stand up against the problems
present in these areas.
SUMMARY WITH TECHNICAL DETAILS
River sand accumulation was a problem in these sites
before 30 years, it caused frequent floods in the basinal area
and the flood occurred in 1978 can be cited as an example
which made a severe damage in the catchments as it was
reported during the investigation. The sand extraction from
the riverbed in the earlier periods was done with
traditional methods without harming the environment,
under the supervision of local authorities. The sand thus
extracted was used locally for construction purposes. This
situation has changed since 1990 when commercial sand
extraction started in the area by invading the river banks
on either side of the Neyyar River even by encroaching
upon the land bordering the river banks. There are
instances that the sand mafia even purchase the private
lands to extract the sand by digging the lands adjacent to
the river bank. Whenever the land is used for the extraction
of sand, the river water enters into that part and makes the
area as part of the river which further compels the
neighbouring people to sell their land holdings for sand
extraction; otherwise they cannot live there due to many
reasons.
Fig. A road constructed to transport sand within the
Neyyar river - a scene from Olathani
TABLE I
SAND MINING IN NEYYAR RIVER
Sl.No Sand
Mining Site
Mining
started
since
No. of
workers
No. of vessels
used
Quantity/load per day
1 Arakkunnu 2000 500 75 50
2 Palakkadavu 1990 75 10 8
3 Olathani 1980 200 50 25
The total number of workers (Table No.1) engaging in the
sand mining activity in these three sites is 775 and this was
very less in the earlier periods when the resource was not
commercially exploited in this rural area exclusively based
on agrarian economy. The sand mining activities start in
the early mornings and prolong till the noon. As the people
can earn much within a short time is also attracting more
young people in the rural areas to this field. The workers
include sand miners, head load workers and transporting
persons which shows the diversification of the activities that
attract the people from various sectors to this field. The age
structures of the people engaged in these activities vary
between 17years and 55years. The wages offering to the
labours is attractive and is one of the main reasons for more
number of people move towards sand mining related
activities.
It is reported; a noticeable increase in the number of vessels
used in sand mining activity in the area which numbers 105
in all these three sites at present. The sand extraction in the
mining sites are of the order Arakkunnu>
Olathani > >Palakkadavu (See Table 1). The quantity of sand
extracted per day in the selected sites varies from 8 lorry
loads in Palakkadavu to 50 lorry loads in Arakkunnu.
IMPACT OF SAND MINING IN THE NEYYAR
RIVER BASIN
River basins have long been exploited as source of fine
aggregates for building constructions. Depending up on the
geomorphic/ geologic setting, river sand mining can impose
serious environmental consequences in the long run (UNEP,
1990).The cumulative effects of uncontrolled sand mining
have substantially altered the physical as well as social
environment of Neyyar river basin. It is noticed during the
investigation that degradation of river is severe in the
alluvial reaches of midland compared to the low lands. In
some cases, the river bank itself being scooped first for brick
making and then intervening sand layers for fine
aggregates.
It is now well understood that indiscriminate sand
mining leads to serious environmental problems in river
basin. Excavation of mining pits in the streambed causes
the deepening of streambed which causes for the lowering of
water table in the neighbourhood. In the sand mining
locations of Neyyar river stretches, like Olathani and
Arakkunnu, the depth of the river bed is about 8.6 m, 7.0 m
respectively. The sand mining in flood plain has widened
the river channel in all these mining sites.
TABLE II
WIDENINING OF RIVER COURSE
Sl.No Sand Mining
Site
River width in 1961
(metres)
River width in 2008 (metres)
1 Arakkunnu 72.33 134.41
2 Palakkadavu 57.64 183.42
3 Olathani 56.44 125.16
The width of the river in Olathani was 56.44 m in 1961,
which has increased to 125.16 m in 2008 (Table.2).Sand
mining in the Palakkadavu area has widened the river
from 57.64 m in 1961 to 183.42 meters and in Arakkunnu
area it is from 72.33 m in 1961 to 134.41 meters in 2008.
Erosion of the river banks and the changes in the river
course are severe in the Arakkunnu area. The river course
was curved in the Arakkunnu area, due to sand mining in
the left bank of the river in the locality after creating an
artificial bund parallel to the river bank has resulted in the
bifurcation of the river .The continued sand extraction in
the left bank has straightened the river course leaving the
actual river course a pond. The two bridges (one Road
Bridge and one Railway Bridge) in the Arakkunnu area
were constructed when the river course was not
metamorphosed; the present changed course of the river is
threatening the existence of these structures by eroding the
river banks nearby at a faster rate. The river bank in
between the bridges is in continuous erosion and whereby
the buildings constructed in the nearby area are in danger.
There is an urgent need to strengthen the river banks in the
area otherwise it would lead to the collapse of the bridges.
The agricultural fields adjacent to the river banks in the
area are also negatively affected due to the continued river
bank erosion accelerated by the indiscriminate sand mining
in the river bank. Thirty four coconut trees were uprooted
during the recent rainy season in the Arakkunnu area
alone.
Changed river course in Arakkunnu area
Changed river course in Olathani area
Changed river course in Palakkadavu area
Flood plain sand mining has lead to the loss of adjacent
lands which includes both private and government
properties. Apart from a huge loss of land it also poses
threat to ecological and landuse aspects in the area. In the
Olathani area alone, a loss of more than 50 acres of land has
been occurred. Sand mining has a direct effect on the
quality of water available in the area. The water is of poor
quality and is mainly due to sand mining (KSCSTE,
2oo4).Assessment of samples collected from these areas
revealed that the water is unsuitable for irrigation. There is
a substantial increase of pH value of water in the area.
Well water levels in Olathani and Arakkunnu areas
lowered due to the riverbed sand mining. Spreading of the
marshy lands is a serious issue in the sand mining sites of
Arakkunnu and Olathani. Stagnation of water is in the
sand extracted deep pits in the riverbed favours the
mosquito breeding and causes the spread of diseases like
Malaria in the area which is a serious problem in
Arakkunnu, Olathani and Palakkadavu.
A railway bridge under threat in Arakkunnu
Illegal sand extraction in the riverbed has far reaching
impacts on the society and it has created many
disturbances in the social wellbeing of the people in the area.
There is an increase in the events of conflicts in the area.
Majority of the people who engage in sand mining are the
outsiders and they force the people through different means
in order to obtain their lands and those who take any
actions against them will be attacked. The value of sand in
the market is very high and is more than 10,000 rupees per
load. This has attracted them to indulge in the illegal sand
mining activities. The money received from these sources is
used for many anti-social activities. There is a substantial
increase in the alcohol consumption, as reported from the
area. The deep pits formed as a result of sand mining have
caused the death of more than 25 people in the area and the
majority of the victims are the teenagers due to drowning.
Land value has also considerably increased in the area
because of sand mining.
CONCLUSION
River sand mining has impact on the environment as
well as on society. The study conducted in the Neyyar River
as a case for dying of rivers due to human activities
revealed that River bank erosion, valley slumping and
channel widening are severe in the area. Two bridges
including a railway bridge and four houses nearby the area
are under the threat of collapse due to river bank erosion in
Arakkunnu area. Water quality has alarmingly decreased
and water table has considerably lowered in the area.
Landuse has changed substantially in all the sand mining
sites of the Neyyar river basin. Stagnation of water in the
area lead to many health problems. In the social
environment, conflicts, and alcoholism have increased and
is disturbing the wellbeing of the people.
CERTIFICATE
This is to certify that the project entitled “River sand mining in the Neyyar river basin” is a bonafide record work done by the group consisting of A.J Moses, Chaithanya Ramkumar, Ansu U, Arun Vijayan and Akhil P.A for the B-Tech EVS course curriculum during the year 2011 done under my supervision. The data presented here is purely authentic and is done as part of the final project presentation in the above mentioned course.
Thiruvananthapuram
Recommended