MAPUSA
Officials in a joint operation seized 181 cubic metres of sand illegally extracted from the Chapora River at Nadora and Pirna on Sunday midnight.
The officials first seized 30 cubic metres at Chandai-Pirna and later seized 151 cubic meters of sand from nine different sites at Kadshel in Nadora.
Those who took part in the operations included Deputy Collector Deepak Waingankar, Joint Mamledar Sandip Gaude, Deputy Captain of Ports Premlal Shirsaikar, mines department assistant geologist Shyam Sawant and Nitin Atoskar and Talathi Mukund Naik. They were assisted by police from Colvale police station and the Siolim coastal police.
Later, the sand was dumped back into the Chapora River with the help of a JCB under the supervision of Mamledar Laxmikant Kuttikar.
Despite police and other agencies swooping down on such illegal activities time sand, those in the trade have not been deterred.
Activists and environmentalists have been raising their voice against this illegality. In the past the High Court had even pulled up the government for not doing much to stop the illegality.
The government had identified 30 sites for sand extraction in a bid to ensure scientific quarrying of the mineral for construction purposes. The National Institute of Oceanography had conducted a detailed study where all sand extraction could be allowed.
