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Illegal Mining Razed J&K’s Sukhnag River, Confirms Govt Report; NGT Forms Panel For Probe
Kashmir Observer
|MARCH 8, 2026 ISSUE
A government-constituted fact-finding committee has confirmed that illegal riverbed mining has caused massive destruction to the Sukhnag River in the Beerwah area of Jammu and Kashmir's Budgam district, officials said on Saturday.
The seven-member panel, formed by the Deputy Commissioner of Budgam in August last year following a directive from the National Green Tribunal (NGT), has submitted its report to the Tribunal through the J&K Pollution Control Committee (JKPCC).
According to the report, the river—recognized as a designated trout fish stream—has suffered severe ecological degradation due to extensive and illegal mining operations.
This story is from the MARCH 8, 2026 ISSUE edition of Kashmir Observer.
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