Mangaluru, Aug 20: Alleging heavy sand mining by the sand mafia in the Nethravati river in Mangaluru taluk, local residents of Uliya Kudru, an island in Pavoor village, have been living in fear of losing their island since it began shrinking due to the rampant sand mining.
The locals say that the illegal sand mining activities around the island went unchecked by the district and law enforcement authorities. The sand mined from the river is transported to the neighbouring districts in Kerala, while the district administration and police department failed to consider this as a serious threat to the islands on the Nethravati river, they allege.
According to a resident, several landslides have occurred causing the island area to shrink due to sand mining. This has brought distress to the people living on the island who fear losing their homes.
Despite the submission of several memorandums seeking to curb mining activities around the island, the district administration has not responded positively in this regard. Although the Deputy Commissioner issued a notice limiting the mining activities till a distance of 1,000 metres around the island, the order was revised to 500 metres within four weeks. This sends a wrong message to the sand miners that the district administration is lenient towards the mining activities, said the resident.
However, the fact remains that close to 50 houses face the threat of losing their land with the ongoing sand mining using heavy equipment.
DYFI district secretary Santhosh Bajal said that the CCTV cameras installed by the police department at various checkpoints around the city including those located close to mining areas were not working properly. If the CCTV cameras had been working, the police department should have booked several cases of illegal sand mining and transportation. However, this is not the case, he said.
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