To end illegal mining, MP plans to make it legal in parts of chambal sanctuary

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Last Updated22/06/2022

TO FREE its forest department from devoting too much time, resources, and efforts in fighting illegal mining in the National Chambal Sanctuary, the Madhya Pradesh government has proposed to open 292 hectares for mining in five stretches on Chambal and its tributary Parvati rivers.
Sand mining has been banned in the sanctuary since 2006.

The state said opening up the five stretches would minimise the conflict with illegal miners, gain local support, and fetch revenue from royalty.
One-fourth of which could be used to strengthen protection measures.
Additionally, the proposal sought to make the contractors of the soon-to-be legal quarries responsible for checking illegal mining on adjacent sanctuary land four times their leased areas, failing which their leases would be terminated.
The standing committee of the MoEF-CC's National Board for Wildlife (SC-NBWL) has considered the proposal.

Spread across three states, National Chambal Sanctuary (NCS) runs along a total stretch of 435 km of Chambal and its tributary Parvati in Madhya Pradesh. An important bird habitat, NCS is home to the critically endangered gharials, river dolphins, mugger crocodiles and several rare turtle species.
Due to the absence of any legal quarries on Chambal since 2006, illegal sand mining persisted in the sanctuary area.