The government has designated Someshwari river as a sand zone. Dredging was initiated in 2005 to maintain the navigability of the river, but later sand poachers started using the dredging method as a tool to plunder the river.
Visiting the Bangladesh entry point of Someshwari River at Durgapur on 18 September, heavy activities on sand extraction and transportation were observed on a 22 km stretch of the river, although the government had leased five sand fields of about 2,000 acres.
Sand hills were visible on both sides of the road starting from Shyamaganj in Durgapur. This sand was transported to different places in the country through trucks. Pebbles and coal are being separated from the sand using special machines which are making loud noises breaking the silence of rural life.
The term ‘sand poaching’ fits in place of ‘sand mining’. Hundreds of Bengali dredgers are seen standing on the Birishiri bridge, taking out sand from the river. Someshwari has now become a narrow canal. Shallow machines and dredging equipment have been installed on bamboo scaffolding to extract sand and then fill waiting trucks. A dredger machine can extract 50-60 tonnes of sand and gravel per day and such activities continue round the clock.
A lot of bamboos are seen lying on the ground, and they are used to install and move the dredging machines, but those bamboos are not removed when the dredging machines are moved to another place. Haroon Sangma and several locals of Debthail village said that non-removal of bamboo poles from the rivers was causing serious problems in the movement of boats and ships as well as casting of fishing nets. In addition, fuel from dredging machines falls into rivers, polluting the water.
