Potentially deleterious impacts of unregulated sand mining can extend into the adjacent floodplains, leading to the loss of agricultural lands and the lowering of the local groundwater table. Sections 15 and 23C of the MMDR Act empower state governments to frame their own regulations for sand mining and devise pertinent Mineral Concession Rules. The West Bengal Sand (Mining, Transportation, Storage and Sale) Rules, 2021 regulate this activity in the state. These guidelines espouse the need to analyse ongoing riverscape transformations by sand mining and to monitor any leased sand mining blocks as per terms of the licenses issued. Along this river, mining features like sand pools had increased by almost five times between 2020 and 2022, while sand hollows had doubled.

Source: The Telegraph January 14, 2026 02:39 UTC