Q. Coastal sand mining, whether legal or illegal, poses one of the biggest threats to our environment. Analyse the impact of sand mining along the Indians coasts, citing specific examples.
MODEL ANSWER
Sand is a naturally occurring granular material composed of finely divided rock and mineral particles.
Sand is an important economic resource and also a source of silica for making sodium silicate, a chemical compound used for manufacture of both common and optical glasses. Sand is an ingredient in plaster and concrete and is added to clays to reduce shrinkage and cracking in the manufacture of bricks.
TYPES OF COASTAL MINING ACTIVITIES
- Quarrying of coral rock and limestone for cement manufacturing and course aggregates for
concrete and road building;
- Artisanal sand mining from the catchment, floodplains, river banks, estuaries and lagoons;
- Informal removal of sand from beaches and foredunes;
- Formal mining of minerals from titaniferous sands; and,
- The production of sea salt from saltpans typically located on estuary flood plains
IMPACTS OF SAND MINING ALONG INDIAN COASTS
- The coastline erosion and accretion can result in significant shoreline change.
- The resultant impact on critical habitats, coastal infrastructure, agricultural land and human settlements.
- Extensive environmental degradation and an increase in the risk from the forces from the sea on coastal properties which in turn can lead to decreased economic activities, job losses and extensive long-term costs to the local economy.
- The removal of large amounts of sand increases water salinity and destroys the habitats of the organisms residing in ecosystem.
- The effect of mining is compounded by the effect of sea level rise. Any volume of sand exported from streambeds and coastal areas is a loss to the system.
- If the sand is mineral within 30m depth or less than 3km from shore, beaches and dunes suffer.
- Sand dunes are part of the beach system and provide reservoirs of sand that feed the beach during tropical storms and hurricanes. If they destroyed, coastal lands are vulnerable to flooding.
- Sand dunes play an important role as barriers against like heavy storms, erosion through Waves or floods.
- Destruction of picturesque beaches causes tourism to dissipate.
- They serve as habitat for many small animals and plants that are part of the marine and coastal food web and whose loss implies a threat to other species as well.
- Beach erosion takes place because of sand mining and effect homes and livelihoods
EXAMPLE:
Kerala coast (India) Because of sand mining, low lying areas, water logged during monsoon and mostly inundated by seawater. These are mostly mono cropped lands with rice as the main crop. Water bodies, mostly brackish, cover considerable area. Two RAMSAR sites that adjoin the Kayamkulam kayal namely Ashtamudi kayal and Vembanad kayal are well connected through various channels and canals. Most of this large contiguous marshland is about 1.5 meters below the sea level. Once the small strip of coastline that protects this region from the seawater is mined off, seawater intrusion would inundate the land and saline incursion will affect ground water also. Negative chain reaction is observed along the districts of Kollam, Alappuzha, Pathanamthitta, Kottayam and Ernakulam