Aftermaths of Goa's Illegal Sand Mining Business | Episode 4

Sand Mining is costing Goa’s biodiversity & the livelihoods of local farmers

With little to minimal government support in combating illegal practices, another disaster could be coming on the banks of Terekhol River

#goa #sandmining #mining #goatrip #biodiversity #farming
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From Chennai let’s head to everyone’s favorite beat state of Goa but unlike what we see on Instagram and Facebook in people’s vacation pictures Goa 2 has its grave issues that it’s trying to deal with and one of them is sand mining sand mining is a major threat to biodiversity

And Riverside settlements across several States and districts in India it is very difficult for the government to track and control and often it is handled by big sand mafias who have ensured that it is one of the most risky issues to report on our reporter akanga has tried to track this issue in

Goa during the day the boats lie peacefully on the shore but at night they are on the water in the dark the men of the sand Mafia illegally pump sand out of the riverbed I do not come here anymore as I am scared of them I came came here a few

Times and they came after me hit me so I ran away in fear so I do not come here now I have seen them at night there is no way to fight alone de Babu Mahal has been farming here for the last 40 years near ugu

Village in North Goa he’s showing me the place where his farm of several coconut trees once stood and eventually were all washed way one by one over the last decade and then the sand mining started which has caused so much destruction on this land during Summers I used to grow

Ground nut and during monsoon I would grow Petty my banana trees and coconut trees have been damaged has the government helped you nobody does anything I don’t feel like coming in this area authorities come and give assurances but what will that bring will it fill my stomach will it give me my livelihood

Back like Mah there are many farmers who had their small plantations and Fields here on the river they can only Watch What Happens here vayak Mahal a retired police officer from the village of ugu says that another disaster could be waiting on this River he believes the

Railway Bridge on the River terol May collapse due to deep Pits on the riverbed supporting the bridge foundation brige for 300 M near the Railway Bridge no construction or extraction of sand is allowed there is a crystal clear order stating this but now if we go to see the plint area

Of the bridge pillars have gone down significantly because of large scale uncontrolled sand mining all this happens here in one of India’s wealthiest regions in Goa here where it is all about Sun sand and spirituality when tourists like to come to especially the smallest Indian state has seen an astronomical growth in

Housing hotels and infrastructure the demand for sand to make cement and concrete has been constantly increasing with drastic consequences for this unique landscape which is part of India’s Western GS which are one of unesco’s eight hottest hotpots of biodiversity in the world world the Cs perform an important function in

Regulating weather and ecological patterns over the entire Indian Peninsula environmentalists say sand mining has affected this fragile biodiversity there’s a lot that happens when you extract sand Beyond sustainable limits is going to change your the the course of your River it’s going to widen the channel it’s going to damage and we

Are paying a big price in terms of uh a loss of lot of species a a a change in diversity change in density change in species composition and that’s a big toll to understand who is accountable I went to meet gu’s environment Minister NES cabal what is your assessment of the rampant illegal

Sand mining taking place in your state extraction of sand was being done all these years rules and regulations have come now and that is why it is called illegal now with lot of activities happening in Goa the demand has become more so the extraction become more but however activities cannot be stopped housing

Construction is still going on small people or big people big people is okay because they using Crush sand they bringing RMC concrete they’re using all these new technologies and building up the new buildings they are not affected infected people are common people who cannot afford the RMC because it cost

45,000 rupees a cubic meter whereas their normal construction cost only 5 6,000 rupees a cubic meter when they procure sand from the river affordability is an argument but there must be alternatives to building with sand I went to see a new housing construction site in Goa ma’am tell me more about this house

Uh how have you designed it what’s the material you’ve used here so basically all the material sourced here are from the local area there’s largely lattic soil which is found in abundance in this region then of course in smaller quantities are the laterite rubble and laterite stone whatever was brought from

Nearby or found on the site so this house if you see does not use uh cement concrete RCC as the base or the main material so a lot of solutions I think the solutions are right around us but the dependency on Sand will not stop unless there is a shift in approaching

Construction a bigger vision is is needed Dean de Cruz is a well-known Goan architect he stands for environmentally responsible architecture he pleads for the ReUse of used materials yeah so this is stopa sheet which is basically shedded you know cartons and where the plastic paper and foil is compressed in it’s very good

Insulation is very cheap and so here’s an example where you can actually use waste material alternative materials can also be part of the solution ution the some materials have you know moved into an industrial scale like fly ash for example Mand is now moving to that sort

Of area so there is a movement but it’s not fast enough uh in keeping in Pace with the sort of Need for construction he says a critical rethink is needed for Mass Housing and construction he points to repurposing buildings now you see malls for example today now they be

Converted into schools and hospitals people no longer people buying online and so you need to repurpose building so we can actually start a think of recycling or unbuilding in a way and he’s calling for a rethink among clients of new buildings all these Solutions require the will for

Implementation for D Babu Mahal and his fellow Farmers everything depends on whether sand mining continues or not their livelihoods and survival are at stake

Aftermaths of Goa’s Illegal Sand Mining Business | Episode 4 | Eco India

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