Encounter with an illegal sand miner, Mumbai.
“Sand is the second most consumed natural resource, after water. The construction-building industry is by far the largest consumer of this finite resource. The traditional building of one average-sized house requires 200 tons of sand; a hospital requires 3,000 tons of sand; each kilometer of highway built requires 30,000 tons of sand… A nuclear plant, a staggering 12 million tons of sand…” Captions and Photograph by “Sand Wars” Award-Winning Filmmaker: © Denis Delestrac (2013).
Excerpts;
Not many people may know that illegal sand mining is a nationwide phenomena in India, and with spurt in housing and infrastructure projects, the illegal sand mining is thriving beyond the ambit of formal economy and law and order. Sand is everywhere and so is the sand mafia…
Read Full Article, The Citizen
Illegal miners have field day in state, Times of India (12-25-2015)
India’s ‘New Cities’ Plan: Environment Not Included, Aljazeera (03-06-2015)
Sand – inexpensive and abundant – is a treasure to India’s builders and the construction industry, which employs some 40 million people. But the spike in construction means sand mining, both legal and illegal, will increase in coastal areas, riverbeds, creeks, and rivulets…
India’s Central Government To Take Up Illegal Sand Mining With States, India Express (10-30-2014)
Illegal Sand Mining is New Gold Rush in India, Gulf News (07-23-2013)
People on Coastline Suffering Due to Sand Mining, India; a NEWS X LIVE Video (08-19-2013)
Disappearing Beaches of India, The Hindu (06-06-2015)
The Deadly Global War for Sand, WIRED (03-26-2015)
Sand Wars, An Investigation Documentary, By Award-Winning Filmmaker Denis Delestrac (2013)
A UN Report On Sand Mining: “Sand, Rarer Than One Thinks;” UNEP, GEA-March-2014
