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UDUPI : Deputy Commissioner of Udupi district Priyanka Mary Francis said that sand mining activities in the district will resume within a week in 9 blocks of Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) areas in the district within a week and sand extraction in non-CRZ areas in two blocks at Karkala also likely to resume in seven days.

Addressing media persons on Friday, October 12 in her office, she said that after the Karnataka Coastal Zone Management Authority (KCZMA) gave its approval to the proposal submitted by the district administration.

Priyanka Mary Francis said that in the last few days in the social media as well as some TV channels discussed about the sand problems in the district and misleading information on delaying permission for removal of sand in the district was being spread which unwanted one. The district administration had been following all rules and regulations as required by law in the process of identifying sand dunes and getting it cleared by all required government departments.

In fact, a survey had been conducted by the AC on the basis of applications submitted by the fishermen indicating the areas where the movement of their boats was blocked due to extraction of sand in non CRZ areas. The administration had started the process with regard to identification of areas of excess sand collection in August and it could not be done as the district had received heavy rains in the previous months also. The survey proposal from the AC had been forwarded to the experts of NITK Surathkal. The recommendations of the experts on the proposal had been  submitted to the KSCZMA and its decision was awaited, she said

She said that the National Green Tribunal’s guidelines will be adhered to while extracting sand in Udupi district. Last year 28 sand blocks identified while this year only nine sand blocks only identified. Previous year 6,08,610 metric tonnes of sand was extracted and Rs. 3.65 crores was paid as royalty to the government, she said.

A new CRZ map had been drafted by an expert team set up by Ministry of Forests and Environment on September 2018. The team had identified critical vulnerable areas in CRZ. The map forbids any sort of sand mining activities in entire Kundapur taluk which also includes Byndoor as it posed threat to fish breeding and marine bio-diversity, she said.

Replying to media persons, she said the task force had been set up to inspect the illegal sand mining in the district. All the issues concerned with removal of sand through manual traditional methods by traditional communities were being dealt with by a seven member committee as one representative of each from a scientific or technical institute, the local communities, like fisher folk and the local civil society which excludes political outfits. Based on the recommendations of the above committee, the district Collector may permit such removal of sand in the specified time period in the particular area along with specific quantity subject to such conditions, such as registration of local community persons permitted to remove the sand manually,  she said.

The Environmental official at district level shall monitor the removal of sand and submit the report to Collector as may be specified, say quantity of sand removed in the period concerned. The permit shall be renewed on yearly basis. The accumulation of sand bar, its removal the process etc., shall be studied by the state government with the help of satellite imageries, GPS etc., It shall be ensured that the permits are not accorded in such areas which are identified as eco-sensitive zones, fish migratory and breeding grounds. The permits shall be given taking into consideration the local circumstances and ecological settings.