Basim-U-Nissa and Salik Basharat: Tales of a Vanishing River Notes on Sand Mining in Kashmir
Sand-mining is arguably one of the prime sources of
environmental degradation in the world. More than 40 billion metric tons of
sand is extracted every year, and over 50% of that is consumed by the
construction industry. In the last few decades, several developing nations
across the globe have co-opted rapid urbanisation into their national
development policies. The foreseeable detrimental impact of these changes on
the environment has been neglected. Urbanisation has been seen as a sure marker
of ‘progress’.
Urbanisation is achieved by standing upon the shoulders of the
modern construction industry which depends on concrete prepared using sand.
It’s no surprise then that sand is extracted at a large scale. India, a country
that has obsessively focused on building urban spaces since the turn of the
century, is the 2nd largest producer of concrete in the world and one of the
leading extractors and consumers of sand. Riverbed mining is a major form of sand extraction.
According to a report by the Geological Survey of India, not only does it
threaten the health and biodiversity of river systems, unchecked riverbed
mining as it currently happens in India, has the potential to lead to the
depletion of groundwater resources causing severe scarcity of river water,
affecting irrigation and potable water availability all across the country.
Unfortunately, despite these dire warnings, many of India’s rivers, such as the
Sutlej, Baes, Ganga, Yamuna, Narmada, and Cauvery etc. are exploited
unceasingly for river-bed sand.
In Kashmir, the primary casualty of this anthropocentric
exploitation has been the Jhelum river, a 774 km long tributary of the Indus
that flows right through the valley, physically and historically, and houses
its sand mining industry. Whether due to the presence of an eco-spiritual
heritage or Kashmir’s political instability or a mix of both, river-bed mining
in Kashmir has traditionally obeyed the golden formula of harmonious natural
living – which is, assuring that the rate of human-induced mineral extraction
is always much lower than the rate of natural mineral replenishment.
The sand
extraction process in Kashmir has predominantly been a manual activity carried
out by inhabitants from villages like Kakapora, Litter, and Sangam etc.,
located alongside the bank of river Jhelum. More recently, with a rise in the
demand for urban spaces, a disregard for this age-old practice has seeped in. Almost instantaneously, under the gambit of urban
development, the valley has witnessed a rise in housing projects and other
concrete based construction activities… https://jklpp.org/tales-vanishing-river/
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