Chikkakuravatti: A small village in Ranibennur Taluk and it's on the bank of Tungabhadra River. The main business was farming. But now the Sand mining has become prominent and farmers have become sand mine owners.
Almost 20-25 years back, there used to be a heap of Sand on the bank of Tungabhadra River. I used to be astonished by seeing the amount of sand on the bank of River. It was very huge and we used to play in the sand.
But now the situation is totally different. If we go and see, there is no sand on the bank of River. Instead of Sand we just see some small stones. The sand has been totally emptied as it has been contracted to a person to export it for a period of 20 years. The contract is renewed again and still the sand mining is going on.
As the sand on the River bank is completely removed/emptied, now they have started to extract the sand from the Riverbed (From the middle of the river) using mechanized boats. This is causing degradation of the River and affecting the water quality.
The government has started giving permission to extract the sand from the river bed. So by taking the advantage of this rule and also by seeing the amount of money involved in the sand mining business, farmers who have agricultural land near the river have started the sand mining business and stopped cultivation/farming.
Eventually this has lead to the conversion of fertile land into Road and Storage area.
The fertile agriculture land is being used as a Road to make way for the Trucks and Tractors to transport the sand from the river bank to towns/cities. Also the land is being used to store the Sand extracted from the riverbed.
Now most of the farmers in my village have stopped farming and converted their fertile land as Road.
The extraction of sand from the riverbed using mechanized bed leads to the following problems:
1) Creates deep holes under the water.
2) Animal/cattle deaths which go to drink water and get trapped in the deep hole. Similar case applies to the human beings also, if a person doesn’t know swimming and enters river without knowing the depth of the water.
3) Oil spillage (Diesel/Greece etc from Merchandised boats) into the water.
4) Killing Aquatic life.
Of-Course this sand mining business is giving quick and higher money when compared to Agricultural crops. But in the long run, the if we see the side effects of the Sand mining activity, the River will be degraded and one day it will be completely vanished also possible that River may change its flow direction.
The sand mining is not a sustainable business, so in my opinion, its better to continue with agriculture and find new methods in farming (i.e. Organic farming).
Almost 20-25 years back, there used to be a heap of Sand on the bank of Tungabhadra River. I used to be astonished by seeing the amount of sand on the bank of River. It was very huge and we used to play in the sand.
But now the situation is totally different. If we go and see, there is no sand on the bank of River. Instead of Sand we just see some small stones. The sand has been totally emptied as it has been contracted to a person to export it for a period of 20 years. The contract is renewed again and still the sand mining is going on.
As the sand on the River bank is completely removed/emptied, now they have started to extract the sand from the Riverbed (From the middle of the river) using mechanized boats. This is causing degradation of the River and affecting the water quality.
The government has started giving permission to extract the sand from the river bed. So by taking the advantage of this rule and also by seeing the amount of money involved in the sand mining business, farmers who have agricultural land near the river have started the sand mining business and stopped cultivation/farming.
Eventually this has lead to the conversion of fertile land into Road and Storage area.
The fertile agriculture land is being used as a Road to make way for the Trucks and Tractors to transport the sand from the river bank to towns/cities. Also the land is being used to store the Sand extracted from the riverbed.
Now most of the farmers in my village have stopped farming and converted their fertile land as Road.
The extraction of sand from the riverbed using mechanized bed leads to the following problems:
1) Creates deep holes under the water.
2) Animal/cattle deaths which go to drink water and get trapped in the deep hole. Similar case applies to the human beings also, if a person doesn’t know swimming and enters river without knowing the depth of the water.
3) Oil spillage (Diesel/Greece etc from Merchandised boats) into the water.
4) Killing Aquatic life.
Of-Course this sand mining business is giving quick and higher money when compared to Agricultural crops. But in the long run, the if we see the side effects of the Sand mining activity, the River will be degraded and one day it will be completely vanished also possible that River may change its flow direction.
The sand mining is not a sustainable business, so in my opinion, its better to continue with agriculture and find new methods in farming (i.e. Organic farming).
