I have been hearing protests of some kind or the other about
stone mining and sand mining from river beds. The first time I ever experienced
such protest was in Katerniyaghat Gharial Sanctuary of Uttaranchal in 1979-80.
In 1990s and the first decade of 2000s I heard it from Chambal, and now I hear
it from the Mahanadi . Individuals or organizations who have
objected to such mining apparently have objected to the unplanned method or noisy
interventions in the tranquility of river ecosystems.
Without knowing, who will value these, at this stage I wish to
put down some of my observations and thought in this connection. I am doing it
mainly because I got the opportunity in the past (1975-1991, in particular) to
see and study the aquatic fauna particularly in the rivers Mahanadi and Chambal. The stretch of Mahanadi I studied was (apart from that is
upstream of Hirakud into Chhatisgarh) from Hirakud to the coast through
Satkoshia Gorge sanctuary of 22 km long and through tributaries like the Luna. My main focus was the Satkoshia Gorge. The stretch of Chambal was
within National Chambal Sanctuary (470 km long) from Ranapratap Sagar to
Pachhnada (close to the confluence of Chambal-Yamuna and Ganges )..
In my opinion,
(1) There is a lot of siltation and the river beds have got
filled up.
(2) The situation has worsened because of water being taken out
of the main river without any or much addition from tributaries.
(3) As a result of (1) and (2) flushing of river bed is not as
complete as may have been in the past. I do not have hard data for this. But it
is a logical conclusion which the Irrigation department could perhaps
substantiate.
(4) For longer life of river as a living-ecosystem, we need
water throughout its course, at least in the form of deep pools connected with
water flow.
(5) I do not intend to infringe into the economics or other public view of
sand mining. As an ecologist and conservationist, I wish my rivers survive as
live ecosystems for indicator species like gharial, mugger, turtles and dolphin
in Chambal, and any numbers out of these species in my Mahanadi . As
a lay man I would say silent dredging and planned sand mining would restore the
river bed to a better vibrancy.
