PEOPLE'S UNION FOR CIVIL LIBERTIES (PUCL)CHENNAI & SURROUNDING DISTRICTS

Hussaina Manzil, III Floor, 255 (old No. 123) Angappa Naicken Street, Chennai-600 001. Phone: 91-44-25352459

Prof. S. Sankaralingam President 9443381160

TSS Mani Secretary 9444905151

Date: 09/10/ 2013

Release of interim report of Fact Finding Team (FFT) on River Sand Mining in the Palar and Cheyyar Basins in Kanchipuram District, Tamil Nadu
Constitution of the Fact-finding Mission On the basis of complaints received of illegal sand mining in the Palar and Cheyyar basins in Kanchipuram District, the Peoples Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL)-Chennai and Surrounding districts set up a fact-finding team (FFT) with the following members to investigate the same: 1. Prof. G. Saraswathi, President, PUCL-TN & Puducherry 2. Prof. S. Sankaralingam, President, PUCL - Chennai & Surrounding Districts 3. Saravanan K, Treasurer, PUCL - Tamil Nadu & Pudhucherry 4. K. Sudhir, Peoples Architecture Commonweal 5. D. Leela, Peoples Architecture Commonweal 6. K. Ragul, Student, School of Architecture and Planning, Anna University 7. G. V. Kumaresan, Engineer 8. Kanchi Kailasam, Student of Law interning at PUCL and 5 other student volunteers Terms of Reference The team decided to look into legal frame work related to river sand mining in Tamil Nadu, mining procedures followed at quarries, the role of government at various levels, social, environmental and economic impacts of river sand mining including aspects of health and impact on traditional governance of commons. The ToR was broadly divided into mining related, executive role related and impact related sections (The detailed ToR will be included in final report). Schedule and Process followed by the FFT to Collate Facts On 24th & 25th Aug.2013, the FFT visited sand mining sites/quarries and stock yards in Palar and Cheyyar river basins and interacted with people of the area, took photographs and videos of the sand mining activity, spent quarries and stockyards and interviews of people. On 30th Aug. and 2nd Sep.2013, the team interviewed various District officials including the District Collector. Apart from these visits and interactions, the FFT has been collating facts for the past several weeks, from various replies to questions under RTI, Tamil Nadu Minor Minerals

Concession Rules (TNMMCR) 1959 (amended upto 2005), rulings of higher courts, relevant G.Os, mining permits given for quarries etc. It is to be noted that the visits were made after the ruling of National Green Tribunal of 05-08-2013 which ordered a halt to all illegal sand mining across India. Quarries & Stockyards Surveyed Palar Basin On 24th Aug.2013, the FFT visited Pazhayaseevaram, Pinayur, Pazhaveri quarries and the spent quarries at Puliyambakkam and Angambakkam on Palar. It also visited the stockyards at Pazhaveri and Sankarapuram where quarried sand of Palar was stocked. Cheyyar Basin On 25thAug.2013, the FFT surveyed the largely spent (i.e.totally depleted) quarries at Magaral, Kavanthandalam, Elayanar Velur, Sitthathur, Vayalakkavur and Pullambakkam on the Cheyyar and Kavanthandalam stockyard where quarried sand of Cheyyar was stocked. The quarries and stockyards visited both in Palar and Cheyyar basins were spread across Kanchipuram and Uthiramerur Taluks of Kanchipuram District. What we Saw, Heard and Recorded on the Ground During the visit to the sand mining sites at Pazhayaseevaram, Pazhaveri and Pinayur, the FFT members saw thousands of men and women with shovels, working at a frenzied pace to fill as many lorry loads as possible between sunrise and sunset. The sand was loaded into hundreds of tractor-trailers scurrying to and fro on the river beds transporting the river sand to the stock yard at Pazhaveri. On enquiry, the FFT learnt that the labourers were mostly migrant workers from distant districts such as Dharmapuri and Cuddalore. In all the three riverbed sites, almost uniformly, the labourers were digging, shovelling and loading sand at depths of 25-30 feet (7.6-9.2 meters) below the river bed, in a landscape that resembled more and more the vast, cratered and life-less surface of the moon. We saw the remains of centuries old flood and spring channels along the south bank of the Palar in Pinayur, gouged out and laid waste. The channels looked like small ponds having some water as sand was mined from this part of the bank itself. We saw the forlorn river intake wells of the TWAD Boards water supply scheme in Pazhayaseevaram which serves as a water source to the southern suburbs of Chennai city, marooned on miniscule islands as sand is being mined around the intake wells in the midst of the river bed the largest only a hundred square meters in area. In Puliyambakkam, we saw the remnants of a social forestry project. Local people told us that the trees were felled and sand was mined in the site. We visited the stockyards at Pazhaveri, Pazhayaseevaram and Kavanthandalam, with their man-made mountains of sand where monster trucks continued to be loaded with the mineral around the clock using mechanised means. The heavy duty trucks tirelessly ply the roads to Chennai city, affecting the roads. Many instances of workers, villagers and other road users falling victim to the proliferation and movement of these heavy vehicles, tractors and earth movers, were cited. We met several individuals and small and large groups of people from the villages on the banks of the Palar and Cheyyar, many who had worked in the quarries themselves and many who confessed to having received money for not opposing illegal sand mining.
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In face the FFT heard from a number of local residents that the sand mining companies regularly paid monthly amounts ranging up to Rs.1,000/- to each household in the village as a means of copting them and purchasing their silence During the 2 days of the field visits, the FFT did not come across any official meant to monitor the sand mining activities eventhough all of the mining and sale activity is intended to be conducted by and under the supervision of the Government. Very importantly, the FFT did not see any signs of quarry-boundary demarcation, benchmarks or other monitoring related infrastructure at the sites itself. Norms versus Violations There are detailed safeguards available in law Tamil Nadu being the only state in India to have nationalised the mining of river sand in 2003 under the Tamil Nadu Minor Minerals Concession Rules of 1959, last amended in 2005 and the rulings of the higher courts seeking to remove lacunae in sand mining. These safeguards are dutifully reflected as conditions in all the mining permits issued in Kanchipuram District from time to time. But the FFT was confronted with the flagrant violation of these norms on the ground. S.No 1 Applicable Norms/Conditions 1 Palar at Pazhayaseevaram, Pinayur and Pazhaveri: The permits issued by District Collector (DC)s were for 44.22 hectares in Pazhaveri (Survey No. 328, 26-03-2009, now lapsed) and 4.85 hectares in Pinayur (Survey No. 404, 26-06-2013) only. 0.9 2 meter is the maximum depth permitted for sand mining in a river bed (Source: Mining permits by DCs dated 26-03-2009 and 26-06-2013 ) Violations Rampant illegal mining across huge tracts of the Palar falling in the contiguous villages of Pazhayaseevaram, Pinayur and Pazhaveri on the north and south banks of Palar estimated at approximately 200 hectares. Locals said this has been happening over the last 4 years. Sand mined almost uniformly upto 7.7 and 9.2m in Pazhayaseevaram, Pinayur and Pazhaveri in the Palar. Sand mined upto depths of 9-12 meters in stretch of Cheyyar surveyed, exposing the clay bed of the river. Quarrying of the near-entire width of the Cheyyar varying from 130-450 meters along the 15km. stretch from Magaral to Thirumukkoodal. Sand has been removed within 3-6 meters distance and for depths of 9 meters, around 6 river intake wells of the TWAD Boards Taambaram-Pallavaram Kootu Kudineer Thittam and 3 others to the east of it. Heavy machinery such as Poclains and 2030 tonne trucks are being used to quarry sand at Kavanthandalam in Cheyyar.

50 meter minimum distance to be maintained from the banks (Source: Mining permits by DCs dated 26-032009 and 26-06-2013 ) 500 meter minimum distance to be maintained from water-bearing and other infrastructure (Source: Mining permits by DCs dated 26-03-2009 and 26-06-2013 ) Use 5 of heavy machinery is banned and only manual means to be employed in the mining activity on the river bed as set out by a High Court ruling and
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subsequent GO by GoTN (Source: Mining permit by DC dated 26-062013 ) The quarrying should not disturb the natural gradients or otherwise impede the water flows in the river or through surplus water flow channels (Source: Mining permits by DC dated 26-032009)

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Cutting or damaging of any trees is not allowed (Source:Appendix XI (see Rule 3) of TNMMCR) Mining 8 should be carried out under the supervision of PWD (WRD) officials (Source: Mining permit by DCs dated 26-03-2009) Detailed transport passes to be issued by PWD-WRD for every 2 units of sand load transported, mentioning vehicle registration number, name of the driver, where it is headed to, when it is expected to reach, etc (Source: RTI reply by EE, WRD, Lower Palar basin dated 26.09.2013) Records 1 of mining should be maintained by PWD-WRD (Source: RTI reply by EE, WRD, Lower Palar basin dated 26.09.2013) Mining should start only after demarcation/benchmarking of the permitted area by erecting boundary stones on all sides (Source: Mining permit by DC dated
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The Palur Periya Eri Ootru Kaalvai at Pazhayaseevaram village has been turned into a semi-pucca track continued into the river bed of the Palar and joins several other raised semi-pucca tracks criss-crossing the river and emerges at Pazhaveri on the opposite bank all these tracks on river beds are dedicated to tractor traffic to and from the river bed. On the southern bank of Palar at Pinayur, two large, centuries old channels the Salavakam Kaalvai and ArumpuliyurPinayur Kaalvai were untraceable. Presence of a full-fledged road traversing the width of the Cheyyar between Sitthathur and Vayalakkavur. In Puliyambakkam village, almost all the trees in a social forestry tract on the south Palar bank were felled for mining the sand beneath. Total absence of any official of Government at the quarry sites or stockyards. Locals also report that officials are seldom to be seen in the mining sites. No such passes were seen. Private individuals at the staging yard at Pazhaveri on the south bank of the Palar, refused to give any information. All the 6-unit trucks leaving the Pazhaveri yard were only inter-carting the sand to the massive stockyard at Sankarapuram on the opposite bank of the river. No field office maintaining records of the quantities of sand quarried loaded or intercarted to any of the stockyards on the river banks. Total lack of any sign of boundaries demarcated or benchmarks established to monitor the extent and depth of mining

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26-06-2013) Mining should be carried out in an eco-friendly and environmentally sustainable manner (Source: Mining permit by DC dated 26-06-2013 ) Mining 1 should be carried out carefully without affecting the local people, farm lands and livestock in the area (Source: Mining permit by DC dated 26-06-2013 )

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Irreversible loss of aquifer in all sites surveyed, drastic fall in water table levels reported in all the villages along the stretches of the rivers in question. Increased levels of dust and noise pollution. Reduced drinking water supply conditions in Pazhayaseevaram Chinna Colony due to decreased water availability. Contamination of drinking water sources in Vayalakkavur. Negative impacts on livelihood security including agriculture and animal husbandry and health. Increased risks posed to the villagers and other road users because of the continuous movement of heavy vehicles carrying sand on the Kanchipuram-Chengalpet roads to Chennai.

Other major concerns 1. Hoarding of tens-of-lakh units of river sand in private stockyards at Sankarapuram on the Palar allegedly formed by diverting agricultural land belonging to the Lakshmi Narayanaswamy Thirukovil in Pazhayaseevaram and Kavanthandalam on the Cheyyar with its man-made mountains of sand of some 80-100 feet high. Both these sand stockyards were claimed to be second-sales points, maintained supposedly to tide over the monsoon when mining will be difficult. 2. Widely reported co-optation of inhabitants of the affected villages during the period of active mining in each area typically 4-6 months by payment of Rs. 1000 by the illegal miners per month per Family Card, often routed through the Village Panchayats, especially along the Cheyyar, buying temporary acquiescence while creating an environment of fear and despondency among the people faced with the aftermath of the mining. 3. Large scale recruitment of manual quarrying-loading teams, comprising of around 10 members-to-a-tractor engaged in the mining at Pazhayaseevaram-Pinayur-Pazhaveri in the Palar, from local villages and such far-flung places as Dharmapuri and Cuddalur, including the arrangements for their accommodation in a Kalyana Mandapam in the area. This indicates the highly organised, private-interest owned and possibly monopoly nature of the mining activity. 4. Use of several hundreds of tractors and trailers in the quarrying and inter-carting of sand from the Palar river bed to the staging yard at Pazhaveri. These vehicles are normally meant for agricultural use only and commonly procured with the help of bank loans.

Plunder in Progress In the Palar quarries visited, stretching for about 5km. from Pazhayaseevaram and Pinayur in the east, through Pazhaveri, Thirumukkoodal, Angambakkam and Puliyambakkam in the west, an estimated 108 lakh units of sand (1 unit = 100 cubic feet) have been mined in the course of the last 4.5 years, with the mining concentrated now in the eastern third of this stretch and threatening to move further eastwards. In the Cheyyar, the team saw a much longer (albeit narrower) course of some 15km., beginning in Magaral in the west and moving through Kavanthandalam, Elaiyanar Velur, Sitthathur, Vayalakavur and Pullambakkam to end at the confluence with the Palar at Thirumukkoodal in the east, stripped naked to the clay of the river bed almost 30 to 40 feet below its banks and involving about 127 lakh units of sand. Taken together, the market value of the estimated 235 lakh units of sand quarried from these two sections of the rivers concerned alone is Rs. 5875 crores, estimated at the Sankarapuram river-bank stockyard rate of Rs. 2500 per unit. And this is only the proverbial tip of the iceberg. In contrast, the Executive Engineer- WRD, Lower Palar Basin Division, Kanchipuram, in a reply dated 4-09-2013 to a question submitted under the RTI Act by a resident of Pazhayaseevaram village, gave the total quantity of river sand mined in the entire Division over the 5 year period from August 2008 to July 2013 as 24.21 lakh units with the total revenue to Government for the same being Rs. 72.63 crores at the Government rate of Rs. 315 per unit inclusive of loading charges and taxes. Official Responses Adroit Acknowledgement, Denials and Ducking The responses of the officials we met in this regard were strikingly uniform. Whether it was the Executive Engineer, PWD-WRD, Lower Palar Basin Division, the Superintendent of Police, or the Additional Director, Geology & Mining Department, Kanchipuram, they denied the prevalence of sand mining in Pazhayaseevaram and other areas without quarrying permits while acknowledging the existence of illegal sand mining by a bullock-cart sandmining mafia. They also blamed the local people for aiding and abetting the theft of sand while side-stepping their own responsibility to quarry, monitor, keep records, ensure compliance to conditions and act against offenders, especially when they themselves reported knowledge of illegal mining. The District Collector, Kanchipuram, while sharing the views of his deputies was candid enough to say, It is not possible to stop the mining activity as the construction work of MNCs and Government projects in Chennai will be affected, therefore it is essential to maintain the supply of river sand to Chennai. According to him, even if he wished to act to stop the illegal mining, it was impossible as information on any planned action is leaked almost immediately to the groups involved in the mining with mobile phones today, even on-the-spot plans to act are frustrated as the minimum time required to form a team of officials is sufficient for the illicit miners to melt away. It could well be our own people who are responsible for this. Expressing his powerlessness and inability to do anything meaningfully to contain large scale illegal sand mining the Collector put forward a peculiar solution to stop the sand mining: the only way in which we can tackle this issue is by building check dams that will flood the sand quarries in the river, thereby preventing mining.
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Who is Responsible? A reply dated 26-09-2013 furnished by the Executive Engineer - WRD, Kanchipuram, to a question under the RTI Act from the Fact-finding Team, reaffirms that the following arms of Government are responsible for the river sand mining: WRD does the quarrying operation. The quarried sand is loaded into lorries which intend to buy sand. a. Demarcation, monitoring of mining and monitoring of distribution at sand depot jointly by Public Works - Water Resources Department, Geology and Mines Department and Revenue Department. b. Record keeping Public Works - Water Resources Department. It is thus clear that although the law prescribes clear division of authority and responsibility, none of the official agencies are fulfilling the basic minimum standards of monitoring expected of them. It is impossible that large scale sand mining can take place without one or the other department getting knowledge of the same. All of them, individually and collectively, seem complicit in directly and/or indirectly supporting or conniving in the plundering of a valuable common natural resource. Recent Developments The FFT came to know that on 18-09-2013, the District administration suddenly became aware of the not-wholly legal grounding of the Sankarapuram stockyard and of the existence of rampant illegal sand mining, resulting in a flurry of orders to stop the sand mining and close the stock yards. On 20-09-2013, a single judge of the Madras High Court ruling in a writ filed by a lorry owners association in 2011, imposed a ban on river sand mining in Kanchipuram and Thiruvallur Districts and ordered a CBI inquiry to fix responsibility and estimate loss of revenue to Government, while pulling up the district officials for their dereliction of duty and abetment of crime. Reacting with surprising alacrity, the Government got the judgement stayed, while the petition was withdrawn soon after. This is part of a pattern that illuminates the labyrinthine and powerful interests at work in the business of natural resource exploitation in general and sand mining in particular. Conclusions: Nailing the Lies of Government 1. Our findings clearly indicate that very large scale illegal river sand mining has been going on for several years and for the past four years at least at the sites reviewed, in the Palar and Cheyyar in Kanchipuram District. There are strong grounds to believe that over 90% of the estimated quantity of sand mined from the two stretches of the Palar and Cheyyar surveyed, totalling to 235 lakh units, has been mined illegally. 2. Currently, the control of the sand mining activity remains only nominally under the purview of the State, with ample scope for the looting by private players with overt and covert support by the political and administrative establishment. 3. A significant proportion of this stolen natural resource is hoarded at the private stockyards at Sankarapuram and Kavanthandalam. The maintenance of a staging yard at Pazhaveri supposedly under Government control, is used to dissociate the responsibility of Government to oversee the sale/distribution of river sand, once the material leaves this site.
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4. The massive scale and highly organised nature of the illegal mining operations in river sand mining in Kanchipuram District, witnessed by the FFT, gives credence to the widely held view that the entire sand mining business in the State is in the hands of a few people. 5. All the officials we met at the District level are fully aware of the widespread prevalence of illegal river sand mining and understand the scale and seriousness of the crimes being committed against the people. At best they are caught between the frying pan and the fire and can be charged with dereliction of duty, at worst they are abettors of crime. 6. And to mask their complicity, the District officials quote the number of cases against illegal sand miners (1212 in 2011 and 1505 in 2012) including vehicles seized- 1491 in 2011 (533 lorries, 21 JCBs, 32 Tractors, 905 bullock carts) and 1717 in 2012 of (406 lorries, 93 tractors, 61 JCBs, 1157 bullock carts). The officials said that there was an increase in the number of vehicles seized from 2011 to 2012. The absurdity of this statement is seen in the fact that 61% of the vehicles in 2011 and 67% of the vehicles in 2012 are bullock carts. Only extreme mental calisthenics can explain how the bullock-carts created vast, cratered wastelands of the river beds and the man-made mountains of sand in the stockyards. 7. The scale and extent of the river sand mining in Palar and Cheyyar basins have irreversibly compromised the water and food security of the region, besides putting the rehabilitation of its traditional water management infrastructure out of reach and wringing dry the TWAD Boards Tambaram-Pallavaram Kootu Kudineer Thittam. 8. The exposed river beds, the weakened banks and the gouged out flood channels together make for increased risks of both drought and flooding, taking us down the path of an impending anthropogenic ecological disaster of epic proportions. 9. Notwithstanding the huge sums of money obviously implicated in this literally daylight robbery of an invaluable natural and common resource, it is the attack on our collective future that is impossible to estimate in monetary terms. It is an attack that imperils the water security of a large and densely populated region, including the city of Chennai whose untrammelled growth and insatiable appetite for natural resources is ironically, the major source of the problem a region with a rich and centuries old history of successful water management and agricultural practices. It is an attack on the very basis of our sustenance with the distinctly imminent risk of runaway disruptive ecological and socio-cultural outcomes, including the loss of tree cover, higher surface temperatures and parched soils leading to desertification and heightened threats to food and livelihood security that may mean more ecological refugees and general impoverishment. It is no less than an attack on the very species itself. In a world that abounds with madness and terror of various hues, what could be more insane or terrible? Recommendations The scale and extent of illegal sand mining and very well organised plunder of river sand the FFT saw in Kanchipuram district may not be restricted to this particular district or river basin. We fear that there is every possibility for this type of illegal rampant sand mining occurring in other river basins too. Considering the impact of such large scale illegal sand
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mining on ecology, water, agriculture, and health etc., our recommendations focus on the entire state which obviously includes Palar and Cheyyar river basins too. Immediate and short-term: 1. Government must impose a State-wide ban on all river sand mining forthwith until the constitution and operationalization of an appropriately sensitised, impartial, open, transparent and publicly accountable instituitional mechanism to oversee the planning, extraction and distribution of river sand as also the continuous review and rehabilitation of quarried sites. 2. Government must order an impartial inquiry by the CBI into all the criminal law issues surrounding the illegal sand mining activity across the State, over the last 5 years. 3. Government must immediately seize all stocks of river sand maintained at stockyards currently managed by private sand quarrying interests and directly handle the sales of these stocks to legitimate end users only, at rates to be determined by the Government, pending the outcome of the CBI enquiry and the constitution of an alternative mechanism to govern the activity, as recommended in paragraph 1 above. 4. Government must fix responsibility for the illegal sand mining activity across Tamil Nadu, over the last 5 years and initiate action against all private individuals and organisations and officers of Government at all levels of the chain of command irrespective of whether the officials are retired, promoted or transferred out of the area/position in question. No favour should be shown to anyone guilty of permitting such sand mining to take place and penal actions, including recovering the costs, damages and penalties from those found responsible 5. Government must take steps to recover and return the stolen sand to its rightful and natural place in the river beds, immediately on completion of the processes of accounting, steadfastly avoiding the temptation to find less-than-reasonable uses for the mineral or false and partial excuses of costs that this may involve. 6. Government must bring out a White Paper on the status of river sand mining and the impact on the rivers and local communities concerned, including the regional level ecological implications for water, food and livelihood security and assess the distribution and category-wise demand for river sand in the construction industry, across the State of Tamil Nadu, since the nationalisation of the activity in 2003. This report should be prepared on an urgent basis, within a definite time frame and made public immediately on completion. 7. There should be a state wide public discussion and debate over the White Paper which should eventually lead to the formulation of a sound policy on sand mining and institutionalisation of an independent, open, transparent, accountable and democratic monitoring institution appropriately empowered by law to safeguard policy and the laws of the land. Medium and long-term: 8. Government must commission regional studies that look at riverine ecologies as complex, inter-dependent systems and cease to treat water or sand as narrow economic goods. State and local governments, government departments and boards, public sector corporations and professional bodies especially those connected with
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urban and regional planning, architecture and building, water resources conservation and management and administration need to independently but in co-ordinated fashion, review the scale and rate at which we can viably extract these and other natural resources for our carefully considered and essential needs, while putting in place structures designed to curb current patterns of unmitigated consumption, retard wasteful practices and promote increasingly holistic alternatives. These studies must be prioritised and phased to yield real-time inputs that can be used to inform all medium and long-term programs. 9. Government must take steps on a priority basis to augment the availability of ground water, maintain water quality and protect sources from contamination especially along the courses of rivers and streams and their watersheds and springs, dovetailing these measures with the existing proposals/programs to rehabilitate water storage structures including the construction of check dams where appropriate, and such other initiatives that may be informed by the studies mentioned in paragraph 7. These measures should be phased across the State with the most critical, water-stressed blocks in the river basins concerned taken up first. 10. Government must undertake steps to rehabilitate the stricken rivers of Tamil Nadu, including rehabilitation of the damage to river banks, river beds and water management and other infrastructure affected by the rampant sand mining, in the short and medium term and the restitution of existing, time-tested watershed management practices and their infrastructural networks, over the medium and long term. 11. Government must treat the need for these measures, as the basis for the revitalisation of the agricultural economy in the State, including reviews of cropping practices in favour of food crops, the re-introduction of traditional, nutritious, naturally pest- and drought-resistant varieties of grain, the phasing out of chemical and mechanical farming and the recasting of State policies with regard to procurement and minimum support prices, warehousing and the Public Distribution System. 12. While stressing on the important and key role of the Government, the FFT nevertheless would like to point out that a major responsibility also rests on citizens and members of civil society to actively play a role in demanding accountability of state agencies as also to start questioning the current consumption-centred, aggrandising and destructive development paradigm which is being pushed aggressively. At the end of the day we feel that citizens also have to own responsibility for the destruction of common resources and therefore bear a responsibility to protect and rejuvenate them. At the core of this enterprise is the systemic perspective that we cannot hope to build a long term heaven on the basis of a series of short-run hells. Released to the Press at Chennai Press club on 9th October 2013 Signatures of members of Fact-finding Team

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