The Reporters' Collective asked the State why it did so. But instead of replying, it ran a PR campaign. Local media carried praises of the state's river mining policy, for its transparency & filling the state's coffers with money.
Then came the trolls.
But none touched our assertions.
This is the story of illegal and unabated mining in Uttarakhand's rivers. And how the State promoted the destruction of environment.
Uttarakhand CM Pushkar Singh Dhami personally lobbied the Centre to mine the state's rivers. In total disregard for green norms.
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In February 2023, Uttarakhand CM went to visit Union environment minister Bhupender Yadav.
He wanted the Centre to extend permissions to mine four rivers flowing through the state's forests.
Centre's permit is needed under India's forest law before exploiting forestlands.
The Union gov't gave its approval within 5 days of CM's visit. Without ensuring that the State had complied with environment protection norms.
One could call it the efficiency of BJP's "double engine government". Except it was at the cost of the fragile Himalayan state.
To top it up, the Centre allowed the State to mine a river- Gaula, that flows through Haldwani- in the monsoon. This went against rules and court orders restricting mining in monsoon. You can read the story here.
Uttarakhand govt and Centre's disregard for conservation laws did not stop there.
Centre closed its eyes as the state violated a Supreme Court order.
SC had, in 2008, set a mechanism for making a one-time payment by an entity razing forests for non-forest use like mining.
This one-time payment or Net Present Value (NPV) is to compensate for the value of the forests cut and the ensuing ecological destruction.
But when the State started mining rivers in its forests, it was exempted from paying the compensatory money for damaging the environment.
This was according to certain pre-conditions imposed by the Supreme Court.
The SC said that the one-time payment would be exempted if the mining is done outside a national park, if it's done by a government body and if all the "sale proceeds" from excavating the forest's rivers go towards conservation of forests.
Even though the state's Forest Development Corporation (UKFDC)- that mines rivers inside forests- enjoyed the exemption, the condition to use the proceeds for forest conservation was never fulfilled.
The state diverted a major portion of the sale proceeds to its own coffers.
For Gaula river, the forest dept and UKFDC together got only 55.4% of state’s total earnings and for Kosi and Dabka rivers the two got only 58.8%
A January 2023 order further pared down the portion going for forests- to 49.6% from mining Gaula and 50.75% from Kosi and Dabka.
So, when Centre extended mining approvals last year after Dhami's visit, it red-flagged the above order that split the sale proceeds that should've gone entirely for forest protection.
It reminded the state of the SC order as well as its own guidelines and asked it to “examine the order …which shall be withdrawn immediately and entire sale proceeds of the collection of minerals shall be used for protection and conservation of forests only."
But that was it.
The State continued mining the rivers. Even in a prohibited monsoon month. It did not pay any heed to the SC order or the Centre's warning.
It did not withdraw the order. And the Centre did nothing.
What is the point of all the laws, regulations & lofty environment commitments of governments, if they are trashed so blatantly?
As experts say, regulatory bodies have stooped to become facilitators of environment degradation.
The brazen disregard for environment did not stop there.
Mining done without paying the state and following rules is called illegal mining. The State has given away its law enforcement duty- to check illegal mining & collect royalty and taxes from miners- to private players.
In December last year, a Hyderabad based company Power Mech Projects Limited won a bid to collect royalty on mined riverbed minerals in four districts of Uttarakhand.
In March 2024, its partnership firm Kailash River Bed Minerals LLP signed a 5 year contract with the state.
Kailash River Bed Minerals then listed down the checkposts it wanted to establish along roads to collect the taxes in place of the state departments.
On top of this, the state's new mining rules prioritize royalty collecting firms to mine rivers.
Imagine the conflict of interest: A mining company keeps check on illegal mining and also collects revenue from other mining companies (competitors).
This handover again violated the SC order on NPV exemption that "works including the sale of boulders/silt are carried out departmentally or through Government undertaking or through the Economic Development Committee or Joint Forest Management Committee".
Uttarakhand's local businesses that depend on riverbed mining suffer under the monopoly of big players. Local transporters told me that the state govt's policies have over the years worked to favour private companies over the local population and the health of rivers.
This year till June 28, Uttarakhand saw 845 incidents of fire in reserved forest areas. Out of these 95 were in Tarai East forest division where Gaula is mined, 45 in Ramnagar and Tarai West division where Dabka and Kosi are mined.
Eleven people had died in the raging fires of Uttarakhand by the end of June.
But instead of better management and protection of forests, the state govt decided to take away the forests' due.
You can read the full story here.
