Who Is Plundering Doodh Ganga Again?

Despite Supreme Court and NGT orders declaring Short-Term Permits illegal, sand mining continues in Kashmir's rivers, exposing a deep governance failure and an alarming disregard for the law.

- Dr. Raja Muzaffar Bhat

In March 2024, India’s Supreme Court delivered what many environmentalists hailed as a landmark judgment.

A bench led by Justice Abhay S. Oka and Justice Sanjay Karol ruled that the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) had acted arbitrarily in granting blanket exemptions to certain mining and construction activities. The court made it clear: every project that could harm the environment must first obtain a proper environmental clearance.

This ruling, in the Noble M. Paikada vs. Union of India case, went a step further by declaring “Short-Term Permits” (STPs) and “Disposal Permits” (DPs) illegal, non-est, under law.

These permits had long been used as shortcuts to bypass environmental checks and speed up riverbed mining operations. The judgment, in effect, outlawed a practice that had devastated river systems across India, including Kashmir’s Doodh Ganga and Sukhnag streams.

But, months later, the same old story unfolds in broad daylight. Trucks, excavators, and JCBs are back at the banks of Doodh Ganga in Budgam district, ripping sand and gravel from its bed. And they do this under the same permits, STPs and DPs, that no longer have any legal standing.

This isn’t the first time authorities have turned a blind eye. Earlier, on March 15, 2024, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) imposed an interim penalty of 15.79 lakh on two contractors for illegal riverbed mining in Chadoora. They had used heavy machinery in violation of their environmental clearance.

The NGT order, passed by Justice Sudhir Aggarwal and Dr. A. Senthil Vel, also banned further mining in Doodh Ganga and directed the Jammu and Kashmir Pollution Control Committee (JK-PCC) to recover the fine.