![]() The United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) estimated that the total exceeds 40 billion tons a year. But few global data are collected on this activity. Sand and gravel are mined on a huge scale around the world. Sand mining concessions in national parks and internationally recognized wetlands were killing mangroves and sea grasses that were home to Irrawaddy dolphins, green turtles, and hairy-nosed otters, one of the world’s rarest mammals. ![]() ![]() In Cambodia, researching land grabs in the western province of Koh Kong, I drove past three local estuaries where dredgers, organized by real estate tycoon and politician Ly Yong Phat, were extracting vast amounts of sand for land reclamation projects in faraway Singapore. It was illegal, but park officials shrugged their shoulders. Riverbeds have been lowered by around 6 feet as a result.Ī month later, in Ethiopia’s Rift Valley, while visiting the Abijatta-Shalla National Park, I watched as trucks drove into the park and loaded up with sand destined for building sites in Addis Ababa, 100 miles away. While in Kerala in August, researching the environmental factors behind recent floods, I found that sand is dredged from local rivers 40 times faster than the rivers can replace it. In recent years, as I have traveled the world looking at environmental issues, sand mining has kept appearing out of the corner of my eye. It is also the least regulated, and quite possibly the most corrupt and environmentally destructive. Sand mining is the world’s largest mining endeavor, responsible for 85 percent of all mineral extraction. Bollywood actors backed her, and now the country’s National Green Tribunal, a government body aimed at settling environmental disputes, is to consider the case. It became a sensation across the country. “The land beneath our feet is sinking away,” she said. Last month, the issue went viral - a 17-year-old girl named Kavya in a fishing village in the state of Kerala posted a video on a mobile phone app about how excavators and dredgers had invaded her coastal community. ![]() But in India, reports of sand mafias cashing in on the country’s construction boom have lately been making headlines. Nothing sounds so dull - even for most environmentalists - as sand mining. ![]()
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