Why is sand mining on the beach so dangerous?

Our most beautiful Indian beaches are under serious threat from recent plans to legalize beach sand mining in the private sector. Legalizing sand mining on beaches would destroy vacation and recreational facilities many of us take for granted. It will also destroy coastal fishing livelihoods and worsen the effects of climate change and sea level rise.

Sand mining on the beach has been illegal since 1991 when the Coastal Regulation Zone rules were first notified thirty years ago. Although illegal mining continues on beaches, its scale has been comparatively low compared to rivers, where it has devastated entire areas of land and water. The existence of major Indian rivers like Ganga, Yamuna, Godavari and Kaveri is under threat.

CoP26, the key climate change conference in Glasgow, focused on reducing coal and deforestation to cut emissions and prevent the most devastating effects of climate change by 2050. However, CoP26 did not consider greenhouse gas emissions from mineral mining (including sand) and cement. Concrete construction as mainstream goals.

Mineral mining has devastating effects on climate change. Sand is the second most extracted and used resource in the world after water. All cement-concrete infrastructure requires sand to strengthen the structure built by it. Despite its widespread use for the Earth and much of our modern civilization’s infrastructure, sand has been left out of the mainstream conversation on climate change.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has announced an investment of $1.3 trillion to build the western model of infrastructure in the Pradhan Mantri Gati Shakti Master Plan. This infrastructure cannot be built without the substitute of sand or sand. Government is our biggest builder of infrastructure.

Yet, the government has never fully audited the availability of sand or matched it with the requirements of our ambitious development plans. There have been no studies on the monetary value of sand that would be required for construction as the theft of sand from our rivers continues.

Royalty to the government remains minimal while the actual value of sand can only be estimated as a percentage of India’s construction plans. When we consider that these building plans are worth over $1.3 trillion, the associated cost of sand makes it our biggest commodity.

Just as sand mining in rivers has changed course during floods and other disasters, sand mining on beaches will worsen the effects of sea level rise, allowing saline runoff in groundwater levels and increasing coastal lands and biodiversity. will destroy.

Disasters like heavy rains and landslides have claimed hundreds of lives in Kerala, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Uttarakhand and other states. These often occur in fragile areas where cement-concrete building has recently replaced biodiverse forests.

India is most vulnerable to climate events and is already facing severe storms, floods and droughts. Sand mining has been proven to make the effects of climate change worse.

Indian cities like Mumbai and Kolkata are also at risk of drowning by 2050 due to rise in sea level. Sand mining will increase the effect of sea level rise. In areas like Kihim Beach where sand has been mined for decades, land loss, fallen trees and other effects are already visible.

There are enormous costs, both financial and human, to rebuilding after every climate disaster. Such disasters are increasing rapidly. Sand is also needed for construction and for reconstruction after disasters.

Even as India called on ‘developed countries’ to provide $1 trillion for climate-change mitigation on CoP26, it is largely trying to repeat its historic mistakes by spending over $1.3 trillion to build new polluting infrastructure. continues to invest.

The ‘developed countries’ who build infrastructure without considering the environment are most responsible for today’s climate emergency. They are now forced to spend on corrective measures. India, being one of the most vulnerable countries, will also be forced to demolish and rebuild the polluting infrastructure we are investing in, to protect ourselves from the worst effects of climate change.

However, India has not invested in policies to facilitate our net-zero commitments to CoP26. It has also not made the budgetary allocation necessary to fulfill our promise of net-zero by 2070. While spending Rs. 100 lakh crores on infrastructure, in the budget of the Finance Ministry allocated Rs. 2867 crores, a deduction of Rs. 230 crore from the environment budget of Rs 3100 crore in 2020-21.

India has not learned from past mistakes. We are rushing to catch the failed development model of ‘developed countries’ and investing huge sums of money to do so. Although we today better understand the problems involved in creating and dismantling these polluting models of development, we are not taking into account the financial or human costs.

Destroying irreplaceable beaches will make us more vulnerable to sea level rise. Legalizing beach sand mining for the private sector already engaged in the uncontrolled plundering of Indian rivers may not be the answer to meeting sand requirements for building polluting infrastructure. India is sacrificing its long-term interests for short-term gains.

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