Until five years ago, Abdul Razzak and his band of sand miners had it easy.

CHERRAPUNJEE (MEGHALAYA): On the way to Cherrapunjee, at a tiny town called Mawmihthied, girls line up near a water tap with a long queue of empty buckets. As one nears what was once ranked the world's wettest place, there are more such groups waiting to fill up for the day.

Laribinglin, 26, one of those hanging around the tap -- they are called 'platform' here -- says scrounging for water has become part of daily schedule. "Sometimes we get proper drinking water once in three days," she complains. "The source is one and half hours away. It is not possible to walk there every day."

With the successful re-auction of 13 sand quarries in four districts, the state government raked in a record Rs 14.90 crore today. The auction has ensured that mining contractors owing allegiance to the Shiromani Akali Dal wrest control of the mining operations in the state.

Sources said there was little competition during the bidding, which indicated that the bidders had reached an “understanding” among themselves. There was no collusive bidding, because the mining contractors had reportedly decided on how to share the profits in the business once they were successful in the bidding.

Sand miners are digging deep into the embankment of the Konkan Railway bridge across the Udyavara river, 6km from the city, putting it in danger.

Dehradun: In a bid to check illegal mining in ecologically sensitive areas close to various rivers in Uttarakhand — such as the Alakanda, the Mandakini and some minirivers — Uttarakhand chief minis

Large-scale extraction of truck loads of sand, gravel and stones from the Margalla hills have destroyed the natural breeding grounds of famous sports fish ‘Tor Putitora’.

SYLHET, Jan 27 (UNB): An influential quarter is making a fast buck by lifting sand through dredgers illegally from the Kushiara River at Sherpur in the bordering Sylhet-Moulvibazar.

New guidelines for sand mining activity in river beds of the state are issued by the committee of additional secretary of forest and environment department of the state.

Seeks Dilution Of EIA Norms

Thiruvananthapuram:Efforts are on to undermine Western Ghats Experts Ecology Panel (WGEEP) report suggestions in the state. TOI has learnt that the state government has told the Dr K Kasturirangan review committee that proposed mining regulations in the eco sensitive zones (ESZ) will impact mining activities and there is a need to dilute the Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) procedure “in view of the lesser scale and the extent of mining activity” in the state.

PANJIM: The directorate of mines and Coastal police raided Akada, St Estevam and seized one canoe and arrested 10 persons for illegal sand mining.

The 10 – labourers –will be produced before the SDM Wednesday, Old Goa PI, Manoj Mardokar told media Tuesday. New Roman'; font-size: medium; text-align: justify;">It may be recalled that last month coastal police seized five canoes and a FIR was filed against 50 labourers at Cumbharjua after raids were conducted by the mines department officials and police.