Measuring and Quantifying the Environmental Harms Caused by Illegal Sand Mining in India

• In Event: Improving Understanding of Environmental Harms, Crimes and Sustainability

Abstract

The Sand Mafia, India's open secret, illegally mines sand for construction sites from no-mining zones. This illicit sand mining business is a highly lucrative one, estimated to be worth Rs 100 crore (approximately USD 17 million) a month. The environmental consequences are devastating, resulting in the erosion of river banks, the irreversible conversion of fertile agricultural fields into permanent wasteland, damage to numerous life forms, and overall environmental degradation.

Despite the environmental dangers posed by this organized crime group there is only limited scholarly research that assesses harms caused by illegal sand mining. In a recent report by the National Institute of Justice Expert Working Group (NIJEWG) on International Organized Crime (IOC), one of the questions posed was: "What is the harm that flows from IOC?" As such, this paper examines the environmental harms caused by illegal sand mining, and how these can be measured and/or quantified. Using a combination of document analysis and interviews with industrial mineral market experts, geologists, mining and mineral processing engineers, this paper offers an environmental harms matrix that measures and quantifies impacts of illegal sand mining on air, water, fisheries, and land.

Authors

• Aunshul Rege, Temple University

• Kathryn Yody, Temple University

• Joshua Koehnlein, Temple University