TURA, April 9: Disregarding the order of the High Court of Meghalaya over unregulated sand mining and without any form of permissions of any of the departments concerned, sand mining on the Manda river near the village of Wageasi in North Garo Hills (NGH) has been going on in full tilt.
In what can be termed worrisome, the destruction caused by the illegal sand mining has been so extensive that the river now has a pond in place of where the river bed should have been. The fact that such illegal excavation of the river bed has been going on for quite a while is borne by not one but multiple such ponds coming up in the same area. As to who has been the progenitor of such an act is still under investigation.
A visit to near the place where the illegal sand mining is being undertaken showed two huge excavators that allegedly have been digging sand from the river before supplying the same for either money or construction work, leaving the lower reaches with less water that what would have been available.
The area where the illegal sand mining is currently underway falls under the Kharkutta PS in NGH and under the jurisdiction of the district forest division, falling within the Dainadubi Range office.
Upon being informed of sand mining taking place, the DFO of NGH, Sathish KS informed that no permission for sand excavation had been sought from the office and the matter would be investigated.
“Due to today, Apr 9 being Easter, we have lesser staff at the Range. They have been informed of the illegal sand mining and will be visiting the place tomorrow. The Nokma of the area has been summoned to the range office to explain what is happening and who provided permission for such an act. We will act after the investigation is complete,” informed Sathish.
The Manda river, has over recent years, come down to an absolute trickle mainly due to the forest destruction at its source. While it still continues to be one of the main rivers in NGH during the rainy season, the dry season has seen the river carry literally half of the water that it carried about a decade ago.
