Kashmir mining expands on rivers despite dire warnings, threatening local livelihoods
FIRSTPOST
February 20, 2020
February 20, 2020
The
Indian government is in the process of auctioning out approximately 200 blocks
in Jhelum river and its tributaries for mining of sand and other minerals. This
is despite a recent study warning against large-scale mining operation in the
Jhelum, and the advice of an environmental committee against haphazard mining
in water bodies.
In 2018, the department of
Irrigation and Flood Control (IFC) had asked the Central Water and Power
Research Station (CWPRS) to do a detailed technical report covering a host of issues. This was also cited by a World Bank
supported study for the Jhelum and Tawi Flood Recovery
Project.
“The dredging de-silting/sand
mining of the main channel of Jhelum from upstream to Asham is not advisable
and may cause difficulties for the flood management. Re-sectioning by
increasing the waterway width may possibly be taken up at few places only as
recommended in the tour report of CWPRS officers,” the technical report
concluded.
The report, CWPRS said, is
based on the morphological analysis, site visits and
analysis of unsteady flow conditions using 1-D unsteady mathematical model with
the data provided by the state engineers including the hydrographs, their lag
time of flood initiation and capacity curve for the various lakes.
The World Bank supported study
also noted:
“In addition to the works to be
included in the interim scheme, CWPRS also recommended that further
consideration be given to:
Considering the frequent flood
threats from Jhelum and its tributaries, the IFC department has a large
authority over these water bodies its approval is mandatory for any extraction
of resources from them.
Massive auctions
Despite these recommendations,
mineral blocks in the Jhelum and its tributaries (which include sand, boulders
and gravel) are being auctioned to mineral extracting contractors and companies
by Jammu and Kashmir’s Geology and Mining department. By 10 February, 2020 sand
blocks in Pulwama, Srinagar and Baramullah districts were auctioned against a
bidding amount of Rs 720 million (USD 10 million) for five years.
Applications for the auctioning
process were invited online (from 21 December, 2019) for the first time this
year at a time when internet connectivity in Kashmir was completely blocked
from the first week of August 2019 until the third week of January 2020. Since
its restoration, only low-speed (2G) internet connectivity is allowed in the
region. Internet was shut down across Kashmir following India’s decision to fundamentally change the semi-autonomous status of the
mountainous state of Jammu and Kashmir on 5 August, 2019 and its subsequent
conversion into a Union Territory (which, under the Indian Constitution, has
comparatively limited powers).
Interestingly the reports
recommending the limitation of mining were largely conducted during the time
that the former state of Jammu and Kashmir was under Governor’s Rule, meaning
that the central government is going against the very recommendations that were
prepared under it.
The joint director of Geology
and Mining Department in Jammu and Kashmir, Imtiyaz Ahmad Khan, said that his
department has received written permission from IFC. However, an official of
the IFC alleged that the IFC faces a lot of pressure from the government to
grant such approvals.
“We are strongly against this
extensive mining in Jhelum and its tributaries, particularly in south Kashmir
as it can have huge consequences on flood management in Kashmir. But we are not
able to assert our authority before the government,” the official said
requesting anonymity.
According to the Water Resources Act of Jammu and Kashmir, “The
control of the bed and banks of all water sources, navigation channels, intake
channels, city channels and flood spill channels together with all works that
affect the hydraulic conditions in the State shall be under the Irrigation and
Flood Control Department.”
Khan claimed that his
department will take environmental and other concerns into consideration when
the contractors start the work. “These are the resources required for raising
of developmental infrastructure and housing. But we will definitely seek the
opinion of experts on this,” Khan said.
But a member of Environmental
Appraisal Committee of Jammu and Kashmir, which gives environmental clearance
to such projects, said on the condition of anonymity, “We had advised the
government during a meeting in December last year that no mining should be
allowed in Jhelum and other rivers till there is a basin-wise scientific mining
plan as to which area should be declared feasible for mining and which areas
should be declared as river sanctuaries.”
“Any mining has to be done in a
way so that it doesn’t cause problems in flood management or functionality of
water bodies,” he added. Recently, he said, some 160 cases of mining from Jammu
region had come to the committee for clearance, “but we didn’t find even a
single case worth clearance.” He, however, alleged that the committee faces a
lot of pressure to give clearances.
Now that close to 200 blocks
are being formally thrown open for mining of minerals in Kashmir, there are
apprehensions that large scale mining for sand and other minerals from the
Jhelum and its tributaries can lead to severe environmental consequences. Given
that the miners will be operating with the permission from the government, it
would be hard for environmental activists and media to question them.
The Indian Institute of
Technology (ISM), Dhanbad, cites an interesting example of
how this works (or does not work) in practice. “Imagine this: a group of
reporters are visiting a picturesque creek of a river on the western coast of
India and are taking some photos. They are approached within minutes by a
menacing gang in a large vehicle who interrogate them on their presence in the
area. One of them roars: “who gave you permission to shoot here? We have
purchased the entire creek for Rs 28 crore (INR 280 million / approx. 5.1
million USD). We own it now.”
Dominated by non-Kashmiri
bidders
Another related issue is that
the change in Kashmir’s legal status now means that non-residents of the
territory can now buy property in Kashmir and conduct business based on the
region’s resources.
All the
10 sand blocks in Srinagar (on the Jhelum), have been bought by the companies
from outside Kashmir for five years against a bidding amount of INR 50 million
(USD 0.7 million). In Pulwama, local contractors have successfully bid for 40
percent of the 36 blocks in the district, the rest going to companies from
outside Kashmir with total bidding amount of INR 480 million (USD 6.7 million).
In Baramullah, out of the 35
blocks, 28 blocks have been auctioned by 10 February. 19 of the 28 auctioned
have been bought by companies from outside Kashmir against a bidding amount of
INR 190 million (USD 2.66 million).
Local contractors allege that it
is a “huge injustice” to them that natural resources, which provide employment
to thousands of households in Kashmir, are now “open for sale” for anybody. “We
are not in a position to compete with companies from outside. How can our
resources match theirs? Obviously, they manage to buy most of the mineral
blocks,” said Bilal Ahmad, a local contractor. Ahmad’s concerns apart, the
large-scale auctioning also raises concerns that illegal mineral mining of
sand, boulders and gravel that has happened earlier, may now become beyond
control.
Engineers in Kashmir’s Flood
Control Department are aware of the consequences they are going to face in
coming years because of large-scale mining in Kashmir’s rivers. “When you mine
intensively in Jhelum and its tributaries, it is certainly going to leave an
impact on local ecology as also on flood management in Kashmir,” said an
engineer in Irrigation and Flood Control Department requesting anonymity. “For
example, when massive exploitation of minerals is done in tributaries of
Jhelum, it will increase the velocity of river flow, which, in turn, can result
in instant flooding and over siltation in our water bodies such as Wular,” he
said.
In recent years, Kashmir has
faced many floods notably the devastating floods in 2014 which
killed hundreds of people in parts of Kashmir controlled by India and Pakistan
and caused losses worth billions of rupees.
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