EVS PROJECT

RIVER SAND MINING IN THE NEYYAR RIVER BASIN

SUBMITTED BY
A.J MOSES - B090482ME CHAITHANYA RAMKUMAR V - B090476ME ARUN VIJAYAN - B090514ME ANSU U - B090346ME AKHIL P.A - B090413ME

INTRODUCTION
Rivers are Indias lifeline and enjoy a special place in prayers and its traditional practices. Many forms of aquatic flora and fauna are sustained by rivers. However, its sheer utility is leading to its own downfall. Rivers are increasingly being linked to several social, environmental, and political issues. It is observed that the removal of sand from the riverbeds has exceeded the natural replenishment, making it unsustainable. Demand for sand is very high in some states like Kerala due to increasing construction demands. Mining has eroded riverbanks, lowered river channels and also weakened engineering structures like bridges. The rivers of Kerala have considerably influenced its historical and cultural development of the people of Kerala. They influence in one way or other the history and cultural life of the people of Kerala. Several places of historical and cultural importance are located on the banks of the rivers. In nature, sand occurs as river channel and floodplain deposits, fluvio-glacial deposits, aeolian (wind) deposits, lake deposits and nearshore-marine deposits. Among these sources, sand from rivers is largely being used over the years for meeting its demand in construction industry. As a result of overexploitation, river sand in Kerala is in short supply and the construction industry finds difficulty in achieving targets. This warrants the imminent need for alternatives to river sand to bridge the gap between demand and supply. It is imminent that measures are to be taken to minimize the use of sand by adopting technologies with low sand/no sand content in construction sector.

IMPORTANCE OF RIVER SOURCES

In earlier days, mining of sand from rivers was well within the natural replenishments. However, the increase in the mining of river sand irrecoverably damaged the river banks, the ecology and hydrologic setting of the river basin. The problems related to sand mining are acute in Kerala as the rivers in the State are short with limited sand resource. River has an important role in the life cycle of many native animals, plants, birds, fishes, myriad of insects and other tiny creatures. People depend largely on rivers for domestic and agricultural purposes. It is unfortunate that this life support system is degrading fast due to various kinds of human interventions. Among the interventions over exploitation of construction grade sand from river beds (instream sand mining) and their overbanks (floodplain sand mining) is the most disastrous as the activity threatens the very existence of the life support system. The situation is rather alarming in Kerala State, where the rivers are short with limited instream and floodplain sand resources and very high population density. Lack of adequate data base on these issues is a major set back in chalking out strategies for the conservation / management of rivers in the State.

Rivers, being very dynamic, are subjected to changes when the variables that shape and maintain their morphological form are altered. The variables include velocity, slope, width, depth, discharge, size and composition of sediments, and their concentration. Sediment is an essential, integral and dynamic part of river basins. The stability of rivers is the outcome of a delicate balance existing among stream flow, sediment supply from

CHARACTERISTICS AND STRUCTURE OF RIVERS

catchments, stream channel form and other physicochemical and biological processes operating within the river system. Stream channels transport sediments and water from headwaters to river mouth, systematically depositing and eroding, abrading and breaking sediment particles during the transport process. River sediments include various size grades of particles including such as boulders, cobbles, pebbles, granules to finer sands, silts and clays. Generally high density particles concentrate in low order or upstream part and the finer particles progressively deposit towards the downstream according to the sediment sorting capacities of the river. So, in general gravel- sized particles are more abundant in the middle reaches of river systems, while sand-sized and smaller grains predominate in the lower reaches. River sand is one of the important ingredients in construction sector. River sand is a non renewable natural resource in terms of human life. Whatever replenishment occurs in the lowland part of rivers is derived mainly from the reworking of older floodplain deposits evolved through a process that take thousands of years. Excessive mining has adversely affected the general public, who depend on rivers as a basic necessity. The sand is extracted either directly from the active channels or from floodplain areas and the former is known as instream mining and the latter as flood plain mining .

RIVER SAND MINING

Sand mining has been going on in many rivers continuously without any regulations, for long, resulting in changing landscapes and affecting flow regimes. Huge craters are created in the riverbed, deviating river flow from its actual course, destruction of river sides etc are observed at many sites. Gradual changes observed for a number of years in some selected rivers of Kerala are

studied along with changes in river flow and cross-sections. Correlation of these results with the systems behaviour is attempted. This identifies with the morphological and environmental impacts of this ongoing activity and cautions for a scientific approach to the issue. It invites attention of policy makers for an integrated and planned approach to river management and also suggests reviewing ownership of water resources, policy and administration. It also proposes governance systems meeting current needs from an environmentally safe angle. The indiscriminate and unscientific sand mining, has become a serious environmental threat to the river systems of Kerala. Environmental destruction is the price mankind has to pay for unsustainable development. Alarming increase in indiscriminate sand mining has caused serious damage to the river system of Kerala. As the demand for sand increases in industry and construction, leads to indiscriminate mining of sand from the rivers. Unlike the other rivers of India, the rivers of Kerala are too small in size and in resource capability. The quantum of sand mined every year is several fold more than what flows down and accumulate in the riverbeds. This situation creates a serious environmental threat to the riverine system. On the other hand sand is an essential construction material and it gives employment to a large sector in our state. So the complete banning of sand mining is not a practicable solution to this multidisciplinary problem. A balanced amount of sand mining enables the river to maintain its stability.

IMPACTS OF SAND MINING

Although sand mining is categorised under the list of one of the most potential disaster capable of annihilating the regenerative property of the land topography, it also has some kind of positive impact to a certain extent. Some of the most important positive and negative impacts are

listed below. Even though the process being destructive, some kind of control reined on the process may help to prevent some potential disasters from occurring.

Negative Impacts
Taking into consideration the places of occurrences of the adverse environmental impacts of river sand mining, the impacts can be broadly classified into two categories namely Off- site impacts and On-site impacts. The off-site impacts are, primarily, transport related, whereas, the onsite impacts are generally channel related .The On- site impacts are classified into excavation impacts and water supply impacts. The impacts associated with excavation are channel bed lowering, migration of excavated pits and undermining of structures, bank collapse, caving, bank erosion and valley widening and channel instability. The impacts on water supply are reduced ground water recharge to local aquifers, reduction in storage of water for people and livestock especially during drought periods, contamination of water by oil, gasoline and conflicts between miners and local communities. The reports show that depletion of sand in the streambed and along coastal areas causes the deepening of rivers and estuaries, and the enlargement of river mouths and coastal inlets. It may also lead to saline-water intrusion from the nearby sea. Thus instream sand mining results in the destruction of aquatic and riparian habitat through large changes in the channel morphology. Impacts include bed degradation, bed coarsening, lowered water tables near the streambed, and channel instability.

Positive Impacts
Sand deposition eventually leads to reduction in conveyance capacity of river leading to flood in rivers. Proper dredging of sand keeps the bed at the desired level. Thus if dredging is not done, due to continuous deposition of

sand, the depth of river may get reduced. This will result in flooding of water and loss of properties. It also facilitates the navigation in the channel as sand is the main fine aggregate in concrete. Riverbeds are major sources of clean sand. An investigation conducted by CESS made it clear that it is very evident that there is a change in traditional housing of People of Kerala. It is observed that the demand of sand for house construction has been increased drastically since early 1970s which is reflected well in exponential rise in the number of terraced and tiled houses.

PRACTICE OF SAND MINING IN KERALA

In Kerala, river sand is manually scooped from the river bed and collected in a country boat anchored in the river. The sand is then brought to the river bank and stored in a stocking yard close to the bank, called kadavu. The sand thus stocked is then delivered to the construction site in lorries. The volume of river sand that can be carried in a standard lorry is 4-5 m3. The local bodies within which the kadavus are located are empowered to regulate and control the quarrying of river sand within it. The government of Kerala has formulated and put into practice a number of measures for the control and regulation of quarrying of river sand. Now, the sale of river sand at the Kadavus is strictly on a quantitative basis in terms of lorry loads with proper passes issued for each lorry load. A set of labourers are registered for each kadavu, and they alone are permitted to quarry river sand from that kadavu. The permitted quantum of quarrying of river sand in each kadavu is based on the recommendations of experts in the field. The price of a lorry load of sand that is to be collected at the kadavu, and the manner in which that amount is to be apportioned among wages to labourers engaged in sand quarrying, royalty to the Mining and

Geology Department of the Government of Kerala, credit to the River Management fund and income to the local body are all collectively decided by a District Level Expert Committee with the District Collector as the Chairman. The charge levied for a standard lorry load of sand at the kadavu is 10000 Rupees.

STUDY AREA
We selected Arakunnu, one of the prominent mining sites in the course of River Neyyar as our area of study. The Neyyar River is the southern-most river of Kerala State. It emerges from Agastya hills at about 1865m above MSL and debouches into Arabian Sea after flowing a distance of 56 Km. The Neyyar River basin lies between 8o 15 to 8o 40 N latitudes and 77o00 to 77o20 E longitude in Thiruvananthapuram District. The basin has a total area of 483 sq. km covering 24 panchayats. The main tributaries of the Neyyar are Chit Ar, Kall Ar, Karavali Ar, Mull Ar, Aruvikod Thodu, Maruthur Thodu, Edamalai Thodu and Talakke thodu. The basin receives an average annual rainfall of 1542 mm. Physiographically, the river basin can be divided into midlands (8-75m) and lowlands(less than 8m) ;( CESS, 1984). The Neyyar river basin mainly comprises of three different lithological units, i.e. Archaean formation in the Upper region, the Archaean formation except quartzite of khondalite group in the Middle region and coastal sand and alluvium, sandstone and clay with lignite intercalation of Warkalli (Varkala) formation and quartz feldspar hypersthene granulite, charnockitic gneiss and hypersthene diopside gneiss of charnockite group in the Lower region. The area experiences tropical humid climate

with an average annual rainfall of about 3300mm.The temperature varies from 200c to 390 C. Humidity is high (more than 80%) during the monsoon period. The map showing the Neyyar River Basin is given below.

METHODOLOGY
The location of the sand mining sites are located through the google maps imagery. Primary and secondary data available are collected and they are used as references for making the required data regarding the problem. One of the 9 major illegal sand mining sites in the river course is Arakunnu, has been visited by us on the day October 2nd. Two guides, Dr R. Anilkumar (Associate Professor) and Shaji Johnson (Assistant Professor) of the Geography department in University College guided us in the study of the area and explained the problem of the area. Some photographs on the area have been taken by us. We also did an interview with the local residents and studied the problem they have been encountering with the sand mining and the sand mafia involved in the area. We have seen some of the damaged structures in the area as well as those structures like road bridge and railway bridge which are vulnerable to threats.

GENERAL INFORMATION ON THE PROBLEM AREA

River sand is mined extensively from the lower course of the Neyyar River, stretching for about 30 KM from Aruvippuram in the north to Poovar in the south. All the sand mining locations of the basin are within this 30 KM stretch. Aruvippuram, Chemparathivila, Palakkadavu, Arakkunnu, Olathani and Poovar are the major sand mining sites in the Neyyar River basin. Among these, Olathani, Arakkunnu and Palakkadavu are the sand mining sites selected for the present investigation. The sand

mining locations are locally known as Kadavus' and the selected locations, Olathani, Arakkunnu and Palakkadavu have length of 2.2 Km, 2.9 Km and 1.6 Km respectively. In stream sand mining as well as flood plain mining is prevalent in these areas.

OCTOBER 2nd (the day of visit)

We visited Arakunnu, one of the main sites for illegal sand mining in the Neyyar river basin. It was the downstream portion of Neyyar dam. Upon arrival we saw from a distance a set of boats on the far side of the river bank. There was heavy activity going on there. A group of workers were busy plunging long poles into the river bed and another group were getting lowered into the water holding onto the poles. They could be seen coming out after sometime with pails of mud. Our guide explained that the poles were used to loosen the consolidated soil from the river bed and then the workers took deep breaths and plunged into the water holding onto the poles and would collect as much as mud during the time they could hold their breath. Our guide Dr R. Anilkumar , an Associate Professor in Geography explained that the river had a width of 72m from bank to bank. But due to continuous mining of the lateral banks of the river the width of the river is now increased to about 142m. Due to the heavy inundation of the bank by the river 14 houses got destroyed since the year 1990. Nearly 50 coconut trees were uprooted. The type of sand found in the river bank is a mix of alluvial and silt. There is also the availability of soil which is used for making bricks. So it was no wonder that we could see a

couple of smoking brick kilns (or chullas in Malayalam) close by. When we asked how they can smuggle this illegal sand and bricks , our guide remarked that they have an alternate route through private properties free of checkposts and every day around 50 mini lorries carrying 50 cubic feet of sand each illegally. The workers are paid high wages because of their dangerous and arduous endeavour. It is reported during the investigation that, Just the day before we arrived , on the October 1st there was a police raid and a fraction of the boats were destroyed. Upon asked why the entire set of boats were not seized and why the mining is still continuing and why the secret routes were not cordoned off, he gave off a short laugh and said But of course, the police are also involved. And this was just to fool the public that they are taking some action. We are discussing the problem in detail below. Studying things in the text books and studying things by visiting the sites is quite a different experience because seeing is more effective than reading. It broke our hearts to see the destruction of the topography and also the structures like houses which are under serious threat under the effects of sand mining.

SAND EXTRACTION IN DETAIL

The sand is quarried with the help of small traditional Indian style boat in which has a low lateral dimension compared to its longitudinal dimension. Two or three people get into the boat at a time and they use a long pole made of wood about 10-12 metres long to check the depth of the river. Then a person dives into the water rapidly by sliding through the pole and carry some amount of sand in the basket they carry and quickly resurface and collects it on

the boat. This is quite a risky profession yet some people are willing to take the risk because of the money involved. People of almost young age to old age take part in these activities. There have been cases of people drowning while doing the diving. The sand consisting of silt is separated from the clay portion of the sand by washing. This sand is carried to the lorry which can hold about fifty cubic feet of sand.

Problems encountered in the place

1) Ground water depletion
The removal of sand from the river bed increases the velocity of the flowing water; the distorted flow-regime eventually erodes the river banks. Beside these on-site effects, the off-site effects are also quite lethal. Sand acts like a sponge, which helps in recharging the water table; its progressive depletion in the river is accompanied by sinking water tables in the nearby areas, adversely impacting peoples daily lives, even their livelihood. As a result the wells in the locality had little or no water. The hand pumps stopped working. When groundwater is depleted, the effects on the landscape and the people are drastic. Agriculture is adversely affected. Furthermore in the worst case scenario ,"Cones of depression" are formed . This happens when too much water is drawn out of a water table without letting it recharge and a large area of the land sinks in. "Sink holes" may also form when an underground cavern or channel collapses and creates a crater in the earths surface. The Farmers in the locality are reconsidering their occupation. But what else can they do .The people involved in this mafia are trying to coerce them into selling their land by offering substantial sums of money. As a result

many have yielded , but a few stay put. But they are in perpetual fear and are highly apprehensive of their future.

2) Houses getting destroyed

Around 14 houses vanished from the area. We visited a family residing in the vicinity. The old lady in the house was vehemently saying that during the monsoon season, she got the fright of her life when she saw that the water level was rising rapidly. As I went around the backyard of my house, I looked down and saw that the water level has risen to such an extent that any time her house was in danger of getting flooded. And looking at the waters rising rapidly, I could not do anything but cry for help. But It was in vain. When asked whether the sand mining has anything to do with the water level rising, the man explained that they it has everything to do with the water level rising. This you see here, pointing to his house, is our second house. Our old house got destroyed 20 years back. We had plenty of land and kunthirikam groove. But now, pointing at a bare patch of land with nothing, but few yam stalks, all of it is gone. Now all that remains is a meagre eight to ten cents. Our house is standing on nought but loose soil. And any day it may get washed away. And the little that we have that also will be lost.

3) Formation of Ox-Bow lake

An oxbow lake is a U-shaped body of water formed when a wide meander from the main stem of a river is cut off to create a lake. This landform is called an oxbow lake for the distinctive curved shape, named after part of a yoke for oxen. The word "oxbow" can also refer to a U-

shaped bend in a river or stream, whether or not it is cut off from the main stream. An oxbow lake is formed when a river creates a meander, due to the river's eroding the bank through hydraulic action and abrasion/corrosion. After a long period of time, the meander becomes very curved, and eventually the neck of the meander will touch the opposite side and the river will cut through the neck, cutting off the meander to form the oxbow lake. Such kind of Ox-bow lake got formed. And the main reason is the illicit mining of sand and the subsequent deposition of sand to form a small islet in between the main river and the lake. As a result the river ecosystem got disturbed. There is formation of water hyacinth , algal growth and the associated problem of eutrophication in the lake.

4) Destruction of ecosystem
The riverine ecosystem is under serious threat due to the mining activites taking place in the river. Many of the aquatic organisms in the river have already been destroyed. A long time back this region of was known to have sufficient fish but, now the life in the ecosystem has been extinguished due to these activities because of the disrupt in the food chain and the ecological imbalance.

5) Decline of moral ethics

The money the people obtain through this illegal activity is primarily wasted through alcohol consumption. None of the money is used for developmental activities or for the social welfare. This disrupts the moral values of the

people and finally to the destruction of the ethics of the society. This can lead to commitment of insane acts. Thus the money the people earn through sand mining is of no use.

Interview with M.r Vinod Kumar and family House destroyed in 1978.
Nearly now have just a meagre 8 or 10 cents. They are very much apprehensive of the imminent collapse of the bridge.

Your occupation , sir?

Mainly I am working as a carpenter in Wayanad. I also used to cultivate kunthirikam, tapioca,arecanut but now I lost all these crops because ever since sand mining took place I lost my four cents of land that had these crops. Our soil is eight metres deep. It consists of different layers namely the top soil, yellow sand, panchara sand .

What are the other problems faced by you ?

Look, this is my second house newly constructed. My old house got eroded in floods in the 1978.Our soil fertility is lost. We cant even draw water from our well. You can see for yourself what is the level of water in the well. Also our hand pump stopped working. Once during the monsoon season when the dam was opened, the flow was so strong that it took away a chunk of the land. This you can see in our backyard and that night the water was rising so rapidly that our newly constructed house was in danger of flooding. Besides, the railway bridge you see a little more than three hundred metres away, well It may collapse one day.

Did you complain to the respective authorities of this illegal mining?

Of course, but whenever I go, there I am sent from one department to another and besides they pay no attention to a poor carpenter like me. A few days earlier some policemen came and destroyed a few boats. They come occasionally like this and do a raid , but after a few days the mining starts all over again. Whenever they approach the concerned authorities they are asked to go from one person to another.

Did the miscreants ask you to sell your land?

Yes, they approached us a dozen times. There used to be fourteen other houses in this neighbourhood. But each one of them sold their land a total of around ten cents. And they all after receiving the money relocated to somewhere else. The former approached me with ten thousand rupees. But I refused. So this time they upped the ante to one lakh rupees. If I also give in to them then this land will also disappear and most importantly it will hasten the collapse of the bridge yonder. It is because the river turns a bend round their land before approaching the bridge , so if their land is also mined then automatically the bridge becomes vulnerable.

FUTURE CONSEQUENCES
It is highly probable that, if this sort of unscrupulous sand mining continues the railway bridge would collapse in a few years from now. The remnant of the houses that are there will also vanish. Either the whole community will perish or they will be relocated with poor rehabilitation and out of them only a very few will be able to regress. The oxbow lake may grow in size because of further sand mining and the remaining portion of land together with the rare species of kunthirikam trees will be lost. The lives of the people living in these areas are under constant threat and this will prevail unless the government takes direct action against these issues which is highly unlikely because of the corrupt and lethargic nature of the political system. There is a chance of high degree of moral decline in the future because of increase in alcohol consumption and quarrels involving the illegal sand mining. The topography of the land can change so much that it will be really hard to believe that the pristine beauty of the place which was revered will be shattered to oblivion because of the unscrupulous and illogical actions carried out by some of the natives of the area. The railway bridge and also the road bridge is under threat. If the mining continues in the same pattern there is bound to be the collapse of these structures. The railway bridge is constructed unscientifically so there is a greater risk to it due sand mining. Lets pray that the authorities responsible for the area may not turn blind eye towards the problem of this place and do some actions which may curb this unscrupulous activity.

POLITICAL FRAMEWORK
The root cause of this problem can be traced to the greed in money of some of the higher ups in the society and the unethical acts carried out by them to satisfy their insatiable greed for money. Very high level of corruption exists in the government and police governing the area. So this problem can only be solved if the topmost sector of the government takes direct action in purging the wide network of corruption existing at different levels. The local police near these areas are turning blind eye towards all the illegal activities. Once in a while the police destroy the mining facilities to a minimum extent to show that justice is being carried out to the public. But the problem keeps on aggravating a lot as the days go by.

SUGGESTIONS FOR PREVENTION

Proper education of the people is one way in which you can tackle the problem. A better understanding on the problem through scientific methods can help the people to understand the future threats which will be caused by the sand mining. Curbing this activity through government intervention seems to be impossible because of the corruption existing in various levels. Only the joined effort by the people can be instrumental in tackling this problem. Suppression of the sand mafia and well protection given to people can help the people to stand up against the problems present in these areas.

SUMMARY WITH TECHNICAL DETAILS

River sand accumulation was a problem in these sites before 30 years, it caused frequent floods in the basinal area and the flood occurred in 1978 can be cited as an example which made a severe damage in the catchments as it was reported during the investigation. The sand extraction from the riverbed in the earlier periods was done with traditional methods without harming the environment, under the supervision of local authorities. The sand thus extracted was used locally for construction purposes. This situation has changed since 1990 when commercial sand extraction started in the area by invading the river banks on either side of the Neyyar River even by encroaching upon the land bordering the river banks. There are instances that the sand mafia even purchase the private lands to extract the sand by digging the lands adjacent to the river bank. Whenever the land is used for the extraction of sand, the river water enters into that part and makes the area as part of the river which further compels the neighbouring people to sell their land holdings for sand extraction; otherwise they cannot live there due to many reasons. Fig. A road constructed to transport sand within the Neyyar river - a scene from Olathani

TABLE I
SAND MINING IN NEYYAR RIVER

Sl.No Sand Mining Site

Mining started since

No. workers

of No. of vessels Quantity/load per day used

1 2 3

Arakkunnu

2000

500 75 200

75 10 50

50 8 25

Palakkadavu 1990 Olathani 1980

The total number of workers (Table No.1) engaging in the sand mining activity in these three sites is 775 and this was very less in the earlier periods when the resource was not commercially exploited in this rural area exclusively based on agrarian economy. The sand mining activities start in the early mornings and prolong till the noon. As the people can earn much within a short time is also attracting more young people in the rural areas to this field. The workers include sand miners, head load workers and transporting persons which shows the diversification of the activities that attract the people from various sectors to this field. The age structures of the people engaged in these activities vary between 17years and 55years. The wages offering to the labours is attractive and is one of the main reasons for more number of people move towards sand mining related activities. It is reported; a noticeable increase in the number of vessels used in sand mining activity in the area which numbers 105 in all these three sites at present. The sand extraction in the mining sites are of the order Arakkunnu> Olathani > >Palakkadavu (See Table 1). The quantity of sand

extracted per day in the selected sites varies from 8 lorry loads in Palakkadavu to 50 lorry loads in Arakkunnu.

IMPACT OF SAND MINING IN THE NEYYAR RIVER BASIN

River basins have long been exploited as source of fine aggregates for building constructions. Depending up on the geomorphic/ geologic setting, river sand mining can impose serious environmental consequences in the long run (UNEP, 1990).The cumulative effects of uncontrolled sand mining have substantially altered the physical as well as social environment of Neyyar river basin. It is noticed during the investigation that degradation of river is severe in the alluvial reaches of midland compared to the low lands. In some cases, the river bank itself being scooped first for brick making and then intervening sand layers for fine aggregates. It is now well understood that indiscriminate sand mining leads to serious environmental problems in river basin. Excavation of mining pits in the streambed causes the deepening of streambed which causes for the lowering of water table in the neighbourhood. In the sand mining locations of Neyyar river stretches, like Olathani and Arakkunnu, the depth of the river bed is about 8.6 m, 7.0 m respectively. The sand mining in flood plain has widened the river channel in all these mining sites.

TABLE II
WIDENINING OF RIVER COURSE

Sl.No Sand Site 1 2 3

Mining River width in 1961 (metres) 72.33 57.64 56.44

River width in 2008 (metres)

Arakkunnu Palakkadavu Olathani

134.41 183.42 125.16

The width of the river in Olathani was 56.44 m in 1961, which has increased to 125.16 m in 2008 (Table.2).Sand mining in the Palakkadavu area has widened the river from 57.64 m in 1961 to 183.42 meters and in Arakkunnu area it is from 72.33 m in 1961 to 134.41 meters in 2008. Erosion of the river banks and the changes in the river course are severe in the Arakkunnu area. The river course was curved in the Arakkunnu area, due to sand mining in the left bank of the river in the locality after creating an artificial bund parallel to the river bank has resulted in the bifurcation of the river .The continued sand extraction in the left bank has straightened the river course leaving the actual river course a pond. The two bridges (one Road Bridge and one Railway Bridge) in the Arakkunnu area were constructed when the river course was not metamorphosed; the present changed course of the river is threatening the existence of these structures by eroding the river banks nearby at a faster rate. The river bank in

between the bridges is in continuous erosion and whereby the buildings constructed in the nearby area are in danger. There is an urgent need to strengthen the river banks in the area otherwise it would lead to the collapse of the bridges. The agricultural fields adjacent to the river banks in the area are also negatively affected due to the continued river bank erosion accelerated by the indiscriminate sand mining in the river bank. Thirty four coconut trees were uprooted during the recent rainy season in the Arakkunnu area alone.

Changed river course in Arakkunnu area

Changed river course in Olathani area

Changed river course in Palakkadavu area Flood plain sand mining has lead to the loss of adjacent lands which includes both private and government properties. Apart from a huge loss of land it also poses threat to ecological and landuse aspects in the area. In the Olathani area alone, a loss of more than 50 acres of land has been occurred. Sand mining has a direct effect on the quality of water available in the area. The water is of poor quality and is mainly due to sand mining (KSCSTE, 2oo4).Assessment of samples collected from these areas revealed that the water is unsuitable for irrigation. There is a substantial increase of pH value of water in the area. Well water levels in Olathani and Arakkunnu areas lowered due to the riverbed sand mining. Spreading of the marshy lands is a serious issue in the sand mining sites of of water is in the Arakkunnu and Olathani. Stagnation

sand extracted deep pits in the riverbed favours the mosquito breeding and causes the spread of diseases like Malaria in the area which is a serious problem in Arakkunnu, Olathani and Palakkadavu.

A railway bridge under threat in Arakkunnu Illegal sand extraction in the riverbed has far reaching impacts on the society and it has created many disturbances in the social wellbeing of the people in the area. There is an increase in the events of conflicts in the area. Majority of the people who engage in sand mining are the outsiders and they force the people through different means in order to obtain their lands and those who take any actions against them will be attacked. The value of sand in the market is very high and is more than 10,000 rupees per load. This has attracted them to indulge in the illegal sand mining activities. The money received from these sources is used for many anti-social activities. There is a substantial increase in the alcohol consumption, as reported from the area. The deep pits formed as a result of sand mining have caused the death of more than 25 people in the area and the majority of the victims are the teenagers due to drowning. Land value has also considerably increased in the area because of sand mining.

CONCLUSION
River sand mining has impact on the environment as well as on society. The study conducted in the Neyyar River as a case for dying of rivers due to human activities revealed that River bank erosion, valley slumping and channel widening are severe in the area. Two bridges including a railway bridge and four houses nearby the area are under the threat of collapse due to river bank erosion in Arakkunnu area. Water quality has alarmingly decreased and water table has considerably lowered in the area. Landuse has changed substantially in all the sand mining sites of the Neyyar river basin. Stagnation of water in the area lead to many health problems. In the social environment, conflicts, and alcoholism have increased and is disturbing the wellbeing of the people.

CERTIFICATE
This is to certify that the project entitled River sand mining in the Neyyar river basin is a bonafide record work done by the group consisting of A.J Moses, Chaithanya Ramkumar, Ansu U, Arun Vijayan and Akhil P.A for the B-Tech EVS course curriculum during the year 2011 done under my supervision. The data presented here is purely authentic and is done as part of the final project presentation in the above mentioned course. Thiruvananthapuram