ENVIROMENTAL IMPACT AND MANAGEMENT OF ILLEGAL SAND
MINING: A CASE STUDY OF KANGSABATI LOWER CATCHMENT
USING REMOTE SENSING AND GIS
Dipak Bej*
*Junior Research fellow, CG council of Science and Technology
Abstract: Due to rapid development, demand of sand is going very high for construction material, filling
roads, building sites, brick-making, glass industries, sandpapers, reclamations to replace eroded coastline.
Rivers are the major source of sand and there is no substitute of sand as a building material in reinforced
concrete cement. Indiscriminate sand mining can lead degradation of riverine environment. The study
conducted in the Kangsabati lower catchment shows that illegal sand mining has created many problems
in the environmental conditions like deterioration of water quality, bank erosion, channel shifting, and
bed degradation. It has created certain negative impacts on land use, landscape and land stability.
Currently sand extraction is permitted up to 3 meter by Ministry of Environment and Forest, but it is
being dug up to 5-10 mt. This later fails the possessing irrigation tube wells. The main objective of the
study is to investigate and recognize the sand mining areas through Visual Image Interpretation
Techniques (VIIT) using GIS. The final results highlight the environmental impacts and its management
in Kangsabati lower catchment of Paschim Medinipur District, West Bengal.
Key Words: River sand mining, Kangsabati River beds, Remote Sensing and GIS.
