‘Jeevitnadi’ demands strict action on illegal sand mining activities

Akash Dhanurkar

Massive successful attempt by city based activists, Vaishali Patkar and Pushkar Kulkarni to catch the miscreants red handed excavating at the confluence of Ram – Mula river has reached the Additional District Collector Pune, Vijay Singh Deshmukh, through Pune based active environmental NGO, ‘Jeevitnadi’.

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Shailaja Deshpande, one of the founder – directors of the NGO, explained the entire geographical representation of the affected area to Vijay Singh Deshmukh, additional collector of Pune. While explaining the entire characteristics of the eco system of the area through a presentation, she opined, “It was an excellent flood plane with excellent confluence before this incident. Mula river can flood because of this sand mining case, now. The dense forest here, too, was chopped down just to fit the JCB in the area. The culprits behind the sand mining have caused massive destruction to the ramp of forest by scooping the sand from depth of the water. They have even diverted the flow of the river. I suspect that they have entered through a private land.”

Demanding strict action against the culprits behind this devious act, the NGO has demanded the Collector office to punish the culprits and protect the rivers from any further such scenarios.

Addressing the presentation by NGO, the addition collector said, “We are already following up the complaint with Tehsildar and the Police officials who have caught the sand mining culprits. However, we haven’t got any hard proof yet or any lead on the main people behind this act. For swift action, we may have to catch such illegal occupations red hand.”

Vijay Singh Deshmukh has also clarified that in such scenarios, it is very hard to indentify the controllers and main handlers.