Meer Irfan
Ghulam Hassan (name changed) often wakes up during the night to loud noises of extraction around the Rambi Ara- a river and tributary to the River Jhelum, located in Shopian District in Jammu Kashmir.
Rambi Ara runs through Shopian and Pulwama districts and joins the Veshaw River near Sangam, in Anantnag district, before the confluence finally meets the Jehlum.
In the dark of the night, the 50-year-old Hassan, a resident of Nowpora Bala, follows the noise through the thick cover of apple orchards and trees to witness open loot being carried out in the dark of the night.
Hassan runs through the apple orchards to find JCBs and extraction machines carrying out massively scaled extraction at the Rambi Ara. Several apple orchards dot the Rambi Ara at both its sides, which the farmers feel are being enormously affected due to the mining.
Farmers like Hassan are aghast at the developments around the Rambi Ara in the Shopian district, which produces the third-highest number of apples in the valley and has thousands of people dependent on Apple farming.
The residents of these villages, like Hassan from Nowpora Bala, feel that the water level in the Rambi Ara has been declining constantly due to the unabated mining.
According to official stats, the district has an area of 26258 hectares under fruit cultivation. Agriculture is one of the main occupations of the people of Jammu Kashmir. It engages more than 8,00,000 families through the length and breadth of the region.
“After the August decision, when Modi-led Government abrogated the Article 370, the mining has gone up manifold. There is nobody to approach, nobody who hears us when our home (Kashmir) is being looted openly,” Hassan told The Kashmiriyat.
Punished for Resisting Illegal Mining
This illegal mining is constantly threatening the livelihood of thousands of farmer families in South Kashmir’s Shopian district. The locals of the area alleged that the unabated loot of minerals has been going on for many days now.
On Tuesday, the locals finally caught hold of a JCB driver who had been mining in the area in broad daylight. Accompanied by heavy machines, he had been illegally extracting ‘Bajri’ and other minerals.
Section 4.3 of the Jammu Kashmir (J&K) Minor Mineral Concession, Storage, Transportation of Minerals and Prevention of Illegal Mining Rules 2016 states that mining is forbidden in riverbeds that are below the depth of 3 meters or water level, whichever is lesser. The depth of Rambi Ara is not more than 2-2.5 feet at most of places. Around the Nowpora Bala, the depth is around 2 feet.
“As the word spread in the area, locals came out chanting slogans and caught hold of the driver. They punctured the tyres of his machine. Nobody raised a hand at him, but he made a call as soon as he got away from us. He called the government forces and threatened the villagers to not stop him or, he said, the consequences will not be good,” another villager Bilal Ahmed (name changed) told The Kashmiriyat.
At around 4 p.m., the government forces allegedly stormed into the Nowpora village and went into a village’s house, who they claim, is hand-in-glove with the government forces. The forces came out and started vandalizing property.
The scenes turned chaotic when the locals came out of their houses. “We resisted them, but the Forces opened aerial firing to disperse the protesting the locals. They vandalized our property, damaged property worth Lakhs,” Bilal Ahmed told The Kashmiriyat.
“If this illegal mining continues, our families will die,” also adding, “There are people in the village who are hand in glove with forces, whenever we resist against illegal mining drives, such instances happen.”
The Locals alleged that six youth were also assaulted. They added that the local police reached the spot and pacified the protesters.
Last year, 21 November 2020, the former chief minister, Mehboob Mufti, tweeted about illegal mining in the Shopian district. She tweeted: “I was stopped from visiting Rambiara Nalla today by a local admin. This is where sand extraction through illegal tenders has been outsourced to outsiders & locals are barred from the area. Our land & resources are being plundered by GOI that has nothing but contempt for us. J&K has been turned into an open-air prison but we will fight tooth & nail against this onslaught on our dignity, rights & identity.”
Officials Say
The District Development Commissioner (DDC) Shopian, Sachin Kumar Vaishya, days ago chaired a District Level Task Force Committee meeting to devise a strategy for effective enforcement of measures to check the menace of illegal extraction of minerals in the district.
The meeting discussed various preventive measures to control and curb the illegal extraction of minerals including sand and Bajri from the Nallahs across the district.
A senior Revenue Official from the Shopian district feigned ignorance about the particular incident and said, “We have not received any complaints about this particular incident from Nowpora.” He said that the department is trying its best to stop the illegal mining in the district.”The DDC Shopian has taken stringent measures against illegal extraction, we have confiscated tippers, JCBs and lodged FIRs against several persons.”
A few days ago, the official said, “We stopped an extraction drive around 1130 PM, as soon as we got the information, we rushed to spot and detained a few minners from the spot.”
Hussain says that the locals contacted several officials regarding the illegal mining that has been going in the area since ending 2019, however to no avail.
The Kashmiriyat also contacted the Indian Army regarding the incident who feigned ignorance and said, “You will get a call from the concerned Army camp.” However, we received no calls as of now.
This water, from Rambi Ara, used to feed the orchards of dozens of villages around the river. “But it is all ending. The water is beyond our reach. It flows beneath the boulders. The minning has made it difficult for us to reach the river water,” Hassan said. He went on to add, “The Government is just making promises, but after August they are plundering Kashmir of its resources.”
“We appeal the administration to intervene and not snatch the livelihood of thousands of families. Everyone is scared here. We will lose everything that we know as Kashmir,” Hassan said.
The Names have been changed on request.
Additional reporting by Irshad Hussain