The Supreme Court on Monday observed that steps to prevent illegal sand mining in the Gharial river reserve in Chambal are just on paper, with Rajasthan proving to be a “miserable failure” in the fight against mining mafia.
Filing an independent litigation following news reports of widespread illegal sand mining in the Chambal Sanctuary across districts in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh, the Supreme Court noted significant loopholes in the existing enforcement measures proposed by the three states. After its last order on April 17, when it sought action on the reports from the three states, the court also received suggestions from the expert body of the Central Empowered Commission (CEC) along with amicus curiae in the case and sent the order for Thursday to pass additional directions.
Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta said: “We found that everything is only on paper. The states have enough resources but they are rarely used.”
Senior advocate Nikhil Goel and advocate Rupali Samuel who are assisting the court as amicus curiae referred to the “extremely bleak situation”. “Rajasthan has no plan for mining after 2020 and the state does not have an Eco-sensitive Zone (ESZ) notified around the sanctuary yet. What is even more surprising is the fact that the tractors used to transport illegally extracted sand do not have registration plates and there are home guards deployed,” Goel said.
“There is a fiasco in Rajasthan. How can tractors operate without registration? And what should home guards do against the armed organized mafia? A special task force would be the best answer,” the judge said.
Al-Siddiq pointed out that press reports indicated that forest guards were killed by the sand mining mafia, but the number of FIRs registered over the past five years is very small. He said: “I find it impossible to believe that they cannot find anyone responsible for sand extraction. Those arrested in the past five years are vehicle drivers and workers.”
He asked the court to ensure that subsequent directions issued by the court should include statements from the states on efforts made to arrest the actual offenders involved in illegal sand mining over the past five years.
The Central Election Commission, which submitted a separate report, indicated that there is a legal gap that harms the issue of addressing illegal mining inside the sanctuary. It showed that personnel deployed to guard the shelter in MP and Rajasthan lack adequate legal protection. The expert body said that unlike other states where magistrate’s permission is required to file criminal cases against forest guards, in MP and Rajasthan, the absence of such legal cover prevents forest employees from using legal force against the mining mafia to escape retaliatory criminal action and arrest.
She even pointed out the manpower shortage. “To protect 1,695 sq km, the reserve requires nearly 339 forest rangers. Currently, Uttar Pradesh (UP) has only 15 rangers for 635 sq km and MP has 50 rangers for 435 sq km…” the CEC said.
“The materials before us reveal an alarming pattern of administrative inaction and indifference,” the court said in its April 17 order, as the court proposed installation of high-resolution, Wi-Fi-enabled CCTV cameras across strategic locations in the sanctuary along roads frequented by mining mafia and vulnerable stretches of the Chambal river. As a pilot project, it has also directed installation of GPS tracking in all vehicles and equipment involved in mining in two important districts namely Morena (Madhya Pradesh) and Dholpur (Rajasthan).
The directives also called on the three state governments to form specialized patrol teams on a continuous and round-the-clock basis, equipped with modern weapons, communication tools and protective equipment, especially in vulnerable and high-risk areas, to confront the force of illegal miners who possess advanced weapons.
“We feel that in these grave circumstances, it would be better for the state governments to give effect to the provisions relating to preventive detention, seizure and confiscation of immovable property and machinery, and conduct effective and stringent prosecutions, so as to prosecute the culprits and ensure protection of the environment,” the court held.
The court also warned that if the states failed to take remedial measures, they would have to resort to its extraordinary jurisdiction to deploy paramilitary forces or CRPF, impose severe penalties on the states, and direct a complete ban on sand mining in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan.
In 1978, the area along the Chambal River, covering areas stretching across the three states, was designated a wildlife sanctuary. The Chambal River is home to the largest population of gharial among other aquatic animals.
The CEC in its report submitted to the court said that while UP and MP had notified the Ecologically Sensitive Zones (ESZ) around the reserve falling under their area, Rajasthan had neither notified the ESZ nor declared the area of the reserve under ‘forest’ making it open for large-scale mining. He believed that establishing a strong coordination and communication mechanism between countries based on real-time information exchange and coordinated response is what we need now.
