Sand shortage to be over soon: Guidelines for sand dredging from rivers approved

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Revenue Department has approved the guidelines for sand mining from rivers in Kerala. The district-level survey report for sand mining was prepared by the Council for Science, Industry and Research. The guidelines submitted based on the notifications and guidelines of the Union Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change, the Supreme Court and the National Green Tribunal judgments were approved based on this.

Sand mining in rivers was stopped on the basis of the 2016 amendment to the law, citing the lack of environmental clearance. The sand audit found that about 1.34 crore metric tons of sand can be mined from rivers in eight districts in Kerala. The government has the potential to earn more than Rs 1,500 crore through this. Along with protecting the rivers, the current action will also solve the sand shortage in the state.

The 2024-25 budget had announced that sand mining would resume. The new decision is based on the sustainable sand mining guidelines and monitoring methods released by the Union Environment Ministry in 2020. The government will release the norms for sand mining later. The rivers with sand mining potential are in Kollam, Thrissur, Malappuram, Palakkad, Kannur, Kasaragod, Pathanamthitta and Ernakulam districts. Of this, the expected revenue from sand mining from Bharathappuzha, Kadalundi and Chaliyar rivers in Malappuram district is Rs 200 crore. District-level committees headed by the district collector are responsible for supervising sand mining.

Sand that can be mined in eight districts: 1,70,21,825.73 metric tons
Bharathappuzha: 54,55,545 metric tons
Chaliyar: 2,80,830 metric tons
Kadalundi: 17,556 metric tons