The mining of sand from riverbeds and beaches is now a globally recognised emergency. In February 2017, the Guardian carried a detailed story on how industrial sand mining is “causing wildlife to die, local trade to wither and bridges to collapse”. Urbanisation and the construction industry have played a huge role in upping the demand for sand and gravel, the article said. In coastal areas large truckloads of sand are regularly transported to extract atomic minerals, silica and other precious metals like zircon and gold.
India is in the middle of this conundrum. The 