The Punjab government has come up with the new sand and gravel mining policy 2021.
What is new sand and gravel mining policy 2021?
The Punjab government had recently come up with the new sand and gravel mining policy 2021.
Several farmers were already into illegal sand mining in their fields.
The new law states that landowners can dispose of ordinary earth extracted or removed during the levelling of their Agricultural fields up to 3-feet without any environment clearance certificate.
This will cause irreparable damage to their soil quality and thus affect productivity
Are farmers opting to mine after the new policy?
Sand dealers revealed that farmers are very much interested in mining their land especially after harvesting of wheat.
It is a lucrative business and they are getting a good amount.
Farmers earn Rs 9 to 11 lakhs from single acres of land.
Farmers see the short term gains and they are not aware of the adverse consequences.
This practice is quite common in Hoshiarpur’s Mukerian subdivision.
What will happen to soil if mining is done?
According to experts the top layer of the soil (up to 60 cm) contains all the important nutrients. The first 6 inches are the most important one.
Mining it would permanently destroy the most fertile layer. It will take hundreds of years to form it again.
These low lying fields would turn into a drain for high lying areas leading to water logging issues.
Though farmers put too much fertilizer to improve fertility there was very low organic matter in these mined lands.
A house can be made from the unproductive soil but crops cannot be grown in non fertile soil.
Sand mafia earns much more than what they are pay to farmers.
How can farmers save the top layer in case of mining?
Primarily farm land should not be mined.
However, if they want to opt for mining, the top layer must be collected on one side of the field.
It should be spread on the field after mining the bottom layers to retain the best quality sand.
What the earlier law says about mining of farm lands?
Earlier, farmers were required to take environment clearance for mining their fields.
No agricultural land can be excavated up to 3-meters even after procuring environment clearance certificate.
If this rule was flouted an FIR was to be registered against the owner of the land.
What needs to be done?
When the government acquires any farm land for development projects they should transfer the upper layer to agricultural fields instead of burying the same under metalled road.
