LUCRATIVE: People engaged in segregating sand at Karahalli on Nandi Hills Road, near Bangalore. — Photo: K. Gopinathan

Bangalore: A boom in construction activity in Bangalore has spurred a new "rural enterprise" that is providing employment to thousands of farmers and agricultural labourers, but also damaging the rural economy in a major way. Sand segregation that is going on in and around Nandi Hills will have a long-term adverse impact on the agrarian economy of the region.

Following protests from environmentalists and some legislators a few years ago against indiscriminate sand mining from riverbeds in nearby districts, the Government restricted such mining. This resulted in shortage of sand resulting in a steep rise in its price. Builders, hard pressed for this vital raw material, found a way out of the problem — they turned to agricultural lands where poor farmers were willing to sell them soil. The sand is segregated by manually filtering the mud in which it mixed.

This is, in short term, seen as an excellent opportunity by poor farmers who do not get remunerative prices for their crops. In the long run, the quality of their fields will deteriorate, and it takes at least 15 years for the soil to regain its lost fertility. In the last two to three years, sand segregation has provided employment to thousands of rural youth. It is taking place in several places such as Ramanagaram, Channapatna, Hosadurga, Chitradurga, Kolar, Hiriyur and many towns and districts around Bangalore.

All that is required is land measuring 20 feet x 20 feet and a big pond or sump for storing water. Tavakkal Sab is a contractor from Karahalli on Nandi Hills Road. He told The Hindu that he paid a monthly rent of Rs. 5,000 to the farmer for the land and an equal amount for borewell water. His family supplies at least four loads of sand daily to the city.

The contractor sells sand at the spot for Rs. 2,500 to Rs. 3,000 a lorry load. The transporter in turn sells a lorry load of sand for Rs. 8,000 or more.

On a nearby site, Srinivasa and Narayana Swamy are engaged in extracting sand. They said that on an average each site provided daily employment to at least 10 persons and to another four transporting the sand.

The owner of a sand-separation unit said that four tractors of soil were required to extract one tractor-load of sand.

Weakens concrete mix

The end users hardly realise that this sand lacks the quality of river sand as it contains fine mud residue that weakens the concrete mix.

Farmers are happy and say that what earn from sand segregation is much more than from farming.

Local villagers, however, who are not involved in the business, complain that hundreds of lorries are transporting soil and sand illegally.

They are also causing damage to the environment, but no officers from the departments of Forest, Environment, Revenue or Mines and Geology or those in the Deputy Commissioner's office are stopping it.

The mud that remains after segregation does not allow water to percolate and can render the land barren.

It also can act as a trap for cattle that can get sucked into the slush.

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