‘Police, revenue depts hand-in-gloves with sand mafia; laws not stringent enough’

Thane: A massive volume of around 9,000 brass (approximately 43,000 tonnes) of sand, enough to construct four Mantralaya complexes with around a lakh built up space each, was scooped out of the Thane creek bed by the mafia in the past six months as the revenue and police departments failed to coordinate between themselves and keep the pilferers at bay.
The massive Tuesday raid at various parts of the district shoreline which yielded around 23,000 tonnes of sand excavated has once again exposed how lax enforcement by the authorities was encouraging large scale destruction of natural resources and affecting marine biodiversity and endangering human life as well.
The sand sourced from the creek ideally isn't recommended for construction but often developers and contractors demand it as a bid to cut costs, which indirectly fuels the mafia industry, claimed experts. The contribution of sand cost is about seven to eight per cent of the total construction cost of a structure.
The sand sourced from the creek is considered of second quality due to huge content of silt and chlorates as compared to those sourced from river beds. Established developers prefer using crushed stone or sand sourced from Gujarat, Rajasthan, Vaitarna or Dhule as their quality is better. The dependancy on creek sand is not advised as it contains pollutants that can affect the strength of the structure, said R C Tipnis, a civil engineering expert from Thane.
Officials claimed the illegal activity has also set back the government of around Rs 6 crore revenue that could have been recovered as royalty from the cache considering the present value of Rs 7,000 per brass of sand.
Experts said the volume of sand depletion could be much higher as a lot of activity goes unchecked. However, the magnitude of the industry was exposed unknowingly on Tuesday when the officials stumbled across the huge cache of around 4,000 brass sand volume stored along Kalyan creek side.
"We were caught unawares by such a huge cache which wasn't ever seized in recent times," said a revenue officer from Thane admitting to stage frequent checks in the near future to keep the pressure on the mafiosi.
Meanwhile, green activists have squarely blamed the revenue department and police for indirectly helping the mafia operate without any curbs as they keep squabbling over timings of the raids often giving enough time for the mafia to escape.
"The depth of the creeks increases due to frequent dredging, the banks are bound to lose their stability and endanger settlements around the embankments. The police and the revenue department seem to be working in cahoots with the mafia or else how can they get away with this crime? The implementation of the law needs to be stringent to deter such crimes," said Stalin Dayanand of NGO Vanashakti.
Thane collector Dr Mahendra Kalyankar has assured of stringent actions on the mafia in the coming days.