Précis

The world is running low on sand. It’s a basic ingredient in construction – think skyscrapers, shopping malls, roads and windows – and cities are growing faster and bigger than at any time in history.

In India, where the government promises to build the equivalent of a “new Chicago” every year, the demand is insatiable. Its construction industry is said to have tripled its sand consumption since 2000.

Legal supply can’t keep up. So now organised criminals are hitting pay dirt, pillaging millions of tonnes of sand from the nation’s beaches, riverbeds and hillsides. Construction wants sand hewn by water, not by wind. So it’s waterways, not deserts, that face devastation.

“This is probably the largest scam ever in our country,” Sumaira Abdulali tells Foreign Correspondent. The activist was beaten and hospitalised when she blocked trucks taking sand from her local beach.

She at least has her life. The sand mafia is prepared to kill. Ask farmer Brijmohan Yadav. He took on illegal sand miners and was kidnapped and beaten. He now lives in hiding, away from his family, in fear for his life and theirs.

Or Akaash Chauhan, whose father was asleep at home when three men stormed in and shot him dead. He had complained about the sand mafia trashing communal land. Akaash’s brother died mysteriously a year later.

“My father’s fight has become my fight,” Akaash tells reporter Samantha Hawley. “Sand mining is ongoing – my father was against it, I am against it and so is my family.”

Akaash names the chief murder suspect, then bravely guides the Foreign Correspondent team to where illegal miners are working. As the team films, a tall man materialises and confronts them. His name is Sonu. He is the accused killer. The crew must decide - stay or go?

Despite a near-blanket ban on unlicensed sand mining across India, the sand mafia operates with near impunity.

“I have to give money to the inspector and the officer at the checkpoint,” says a tractor driver, adding that what’s left after the bribe is barely enough for food. He is one of the sand mafia’s many foot soldiers.

At best, officials are blind to the obvious. “No mafia… You are probably mistaken in believing that sand mining is going on here,” protests a magistrate in charge of an area where illegal mining is carried out routinely and brazenly in full daylight.

With authorities paralysed by inertia or corruption, it’s up to a small band of activists to take the fight to the sand mafia and expose the dirty secret at the heart of India’s construction frenzy.

Construction sites

Music

00:00

SAMANTHA HAWLEY: It’s one of the most ambitious building drives in history as India fast tracks its way to prosperity. But the boom has spawned a vicious illegal trade.

00:07

Hawley in darkness walking with men

[shining torch into the darkness] “We’re seeing someone there. We’re just a bit reluctant to… it’s a really kind of hairy situation and we’re not sure it’s really safe for us to go any further”.

00:22

Men at sand mine

Crime gangs specialising in environmental destruction.

00:30

Hawley with Akaash at his home

“And the assailant came down from here yeah?”

AKAASH CHAUHAN: “This is the room and they came from this side and shot my father”.

00:35

Stills of bed on which father was killed

FX: Gunshots

00:41

Hawley with man at sand mine

MAN:  This is not allowed.

SAMANTHA HAWLEY: And prepared to kill anyone in their way.

00:45

Title fades up over city skyline:
LINE IN THE SAND

00:51

Fishermen on river

Music

01:00

Super:
THANE RIVER, MUMBAI
REPORTER: SAMANTHA HAWLEY

01:08

SAMANTHA HAWLEY: These are the native fishermen of India’s biggest city. Koli men who have fished Mumbai’s Thane river for generations, long before the city became India’s financial hub. It’s so polluted, the fish stopped living here long ago,

01:30

Men mining sand

but the men have found a new livelihood – fishing for sand. These days mining for sand is almost as valuable as mining for gold thanks to a massive construction boom.

01:49

Men diving for sand

The men free dive for about two minutes at a time, as many as two hundred times a day. What they’re doing is illegal and dangerous.

02:11

SUMAIRA ABDULALI: “They don’t even have a safety rope when they go down and of course no diving equipment. They dive down 40 or 50 feet without equipment for eight hours a day.

02:29

Sumaira interview

A lot of them die because they get swept away. These are tidal creeks. There are strong tidal currents”.

02:38

Men diving for sand

02:44

Sumaira watching men dive

SAMANTHA HAWLEY: Sumaira Abdulali is on a mission to expose the powerful people behind this black market trade, a network of organised criminals who run illegal sand mining across the country. This operation is a very modest example and Sumaira considers these fishermen not as criminals, but as victims of what they call the “sand mafia”.

02:49

SUMAIRA ABDULALI: “At the very lowest level they are people who are completely helpless and who are, for the sake of a livelihood, are suffering great hardships

03:15

Sumaira interview

and human rights violations to execute the sand mafia’s agenda. This is probably the largest scam ever in our country”.

03:25

Beach shots

Music

03:35

SAMANTHA HAWLEY: “This is a part of India that not everyone gets to enjoy.

03:47

Hawley to camera walking along beach

More and more people are moving to the cities and the construction industry is booming. In the next ten years, it’s set to be in the top three in the world and that’s why sand is India’s new gold”.

03:51

Music

04:05

City construction

SAMANTHA HAWLEY:  Sand is the key to the construction industry which employs more than 35 million people here.

04:15

Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, has promised to build the equivalent of a new Chicago every year. That will take colossal amounts of concrete and for concrete, you need sand. It’s not just a problem here, globally demand far outstrips the legal supply of sand – but India is one of the worst offenders. With so much money to be made, riverbeds and beaches are being plundered with the mafia stopping at nothing, including murder, to get the sand.

04:26

Hawley walks with Sumaira on beach

Sumaira Abdulali became aware of the problem more than a decade ago when she discovered sand was being stolen from her local beach, a boat ride from Mumbai.

05:10

“Ah yes so you can see where it’s just, the land’s gone. This is where a major sand mining was happening right here was it, yeah?”

05:24

Sumaira shows mining activity

SUMAIRA ABDULALI: “Yes, yes. So you can see that the beach itself used to be at the height that that land is now and the whole level of sand has dropped by about 10 feet”.

SAMANTHA HAWLEY: “10 feet!”

SUMAIRA ABDULALI: “10 feet or

05:29

more and they would take away sand in trucks. They would cross this creek which you can see at low tide - and bullock carts, tens of bullock carts at a time every day. And now it’s just gone”.

SAMANTHA HAWLEY: “Yeah, they’ve really destroyed. You can see the destruction can’t you?”

SUMAIRA ABDULALI: “They’ve really destroyed it. Yes”.

05:42

Beach devastation

SAMANTHA ABDULALI: “There’s loads of sand in the desert but this is the sand that they need for construction isn’t it? So this is a special sand. This is the gold?”

SUMAIRA ABDULALI: “This is the special sand because when you look at the sand, I mean if you look at it closely you know it sticks.

05:59

Sumaira holds sand

You see this?”

SAMANTHA HAWLEY: “Yes”.

SUMAIRA ABDULALI: “It sticks and the reason is that this sand has an uneven particle size and that’s what makes it stick

06:11

and gives strength to a building. If you take desert sand and do this, you will see that it flies apart because it’s very rounded, the edges are rounded”.

06:21

Hawley and Sumaira walk along beach

SAMANTHA HAWLEY: Sumaira was told she’d have to catch the culprits red-handed for authorities to take any action. So she did. She used her own car to stop a truck driving out from the beach.

SUMAIRA ABDULALI: “They bashed up the car,

06:30

Sumaira interview

broke everything. They hit all of us. They broke my teeth. I still have headaches after that I was, my hand got paralysed and I had to be in hospital for a bit”.

06:44

Sunset/Village GVs

Music

06:57

SAMANTHA HAWLEY: Taking away large amounts of sand can have catastrophic consequences, destroying farmland, causing floods, landslides and contaminating ground water. We’ve come to Bundelkhand, a drought stricken region in central India. Life’s a struggle here at the best of times, let alone when your land is being destroyed by greedy sand miners.

07:15

Brijmohan walks

Local famer, Brijmohan Yadav, has been fighting them for years.

07:43

Hawley walks with Brijmohan and looks at mining site

His first encounter with the sand mafia was when they came onto his land in the dead of night to reach the riverbed.

07:51

“And the trucks just come straight through here?”

BRIJMOHAN YADAV: “The public road was here before it was washed away in the monsoon. So the sand miners then dug through my land to create another road”.

08:01

Hawley and Brijmohan at river

SAMANTHA HAWLEY: “So how has this river changed over time with all this sand digging, this mining?”

BRIJMOHAN YADAV: “This river didn’t flow through our fields like it does now.

08:17

When they mined that part of the river, it completely changed its course. It used to flow straight, now it goes through our fields.

08:28

As soon as the rains come it will most likely overflow onto my land and wash it away.

08:41

Brijmohan’s crop fields

Music

08:49

BRIJMOHAN YADAV:  This was also happening to many other farmers

08:54

Brijmohan’s interview

but no-one said anything because the mafia is so influential. They have police and local authorities on their side”.

08:58

Brijmohan at river

SAMANTHA HAWLEY: And so began a fight first for his land and then for his life. He was contacted by people from a nearby village who he thought wanted to help him. Instead they ambushed him.

BRIJMOHAN YADAV: “These people kidnapped me and took me to an isolated place.

09:04

Brijmohan interview

They beat me up and threatened to kill me if I did not stop all this.

09:25

Brijmohan at home. Walks up stairs and lays on bed

They tortured me for three days. Then they let me go and said that if I continue, they’ll catch me and I won’t survive”.

SAMANTHA HAWLEY: Brijmohan is in hiding from those who want to kill him. He has a High Court order protecting him, but for the safety of his family, he can’t go home. It’s a long, lonely battle.

09:32

Driving along road at night

Music

09-56

SAMANTHA HAWLEY: We want to film illegal sand mining but it won’t be easy. There’s a near blanket ban on unlicensed mining across India imposed by the Supreme Court. But in remote, rural areas like this, it continues with impunity and is often the best paid job going. We move under cover of night because as a foreign TV crew, we really stand out.

10:02

Oncoming car lights appear

We’re taken to an area where the locals say there has been sand mining recently. Suddenly we see lights up ahead.  “Oh I think it’s right there. Is someone coming? There’s a car coming yeah? Go back, go back, go back.”

10:35

Truck passes

10:52

Hawley to camera

“So that was just a truck load of sand that’s just gone past us which is almost the proof that we need that there is illegal sand mining going on here. Whether or not now we push forward and go further deeper in here, which could be quite dangerous, we’ll have to now have a talk about and decide whether it’s safe to actually push on into here. We can see the lights - that’s where the mining’s going on”.

11:07

Hawley and Raja

RAJA: “These vehicles are taking sand out of the river. They steal the sand like this through the night. They trucks can’t get in here so all night they tractors run like this, taking sand out of the river”.

11:29

SAMANTHA HAWLEY: “They’d know by now that we’re here, right?”

SABI: “They’ll know”.

RAJA: “We’re inside their citadel here, an area that’s been fortified with lookouts.

11:43

But we’ve managed to get past them”.

SAMANTHA HAWLEY: “Is it safe for us to go further on in here?”

It isn’t. The car won’t make it so we go in on foot.

11:51

Hawley and team walk in darkness

Music

12:00

SAMANTHA HAWLEY:  “Is there someone there? There’s someone there. Just come back to the car, closer to the car. We’ve seen someone there. We’re just a bit reluctant… it’s a really kind of hairy situation and we’re not sure it’s really safe for us to go any further and so I think it’s safer for us to go back to the car and see if they approach us”.

12:07

Walking back to car

 “Here is another one coming yeah? Is this a tractor coming?”

12:27

Tractor and trailer go past

Now aware of our presence, the workers begin to scatter.

“It’s empty”.

12:44

Team drive away. Hawley in car

Music

12:57

It’s time for us to get out too.

“So the motorbike is following us now, is it?”

SABI: “Yes, there’s a motorcycle following us and there was a point where they were sitting… and they’re waiting for us”.

SABI: “Yes. I think they’re probably trying to make sure that we are really leaving”.

13:05

Motorbike departs

SAMANTHA HAWLEY: When they’re sure we’re on our way, we lose our escort.

SABI: “There’s no number on the bike”.

SAMANTHA HAWLEY: We can film no more tonight.

13:26

Team drives back to mining site

The next morning we’re back. The sand thieves can be brazen enough to work even at this time. And sure enough… we catch one red handed.

13:45

Team with tractor driver

The tractor driver calls his boss who arrives with an entourage.

“Truck owner?”

14:04

At first neither man is keen to talk. Eventually they tell us they know what they’re doing is illegal, but they don’t have much choice.

14:14

Tractor driver

TRACTOR DRIVER: “I feel bad that I do this job, but there’s no other work I can do. I get a little extra money. That’s why I do it. Everybody does what they do for their stomachs”.

14:26

Hawley and others with tractor driver

SAMANTHA HAWLEY: We’re told that each night there are approximately 20 to 25 tractors like this one loaded with sand making up to three trips per shift. By the time everyone gets a cut, there isn’t much left.

14:42

Tractor owner

TRACTOR OWNER: “I have to give money to the inspector and the officer at the checkpoint”.

14:58

Hawley and others with tractor driver, owner and men

SAMANTHA HAWLEY: It’s clear these men aren’t the big money makers, they’re from the lower rungs of the mafia.

15:07

Line of trucks waiting for sand

The extent of illegal mining in this district can’t be hidden. Day after day these trucks line up ready to take away tonnes of sand. We count about 35 and we’re told this is routine. The central government leaves it to local authorities to enforce.

15:20

Exterior. Magistrate’s court

Music

15:40

Hawley enters room at court

SAMANTHA HAWLEY: We decide to pay a surprise visit to the District Magistrate in charge of the area.

[entering room] “I’m Samantha Hawley from ABC Australia. We’ve come here to do a story about sand mining, the rampant sand mining that is taking place across this district”.

15:46

District Magistrate interview

DISTRICT MAGISTRATE: “There has been a directive from the High Court. They have put a stop to mining in the whole state. So at this time there is no more mining in this area”.

16:06

SAMANTHA HAWLEY: “Why are you saying there’s no sand mining when there’s clearly sand mining?”

16:29

DISTRICT MAGISTRATE: “It’s possible that there is some illegal sand mining going on. But if we hear there’s sand mining going on, then we take the necessary action against it and try to stop it. You could be mistaken in thinking that there is sand mining going on here”.

16:33

SAMANTHA HAWLEY: But what about the sand mafia, the farmer told us about?

16:50

DISTRICT MAGISTRATE: “There’s no need to be scared. The land order situation is quite good. Nothing mafia. No mafia”.

16:55

Street parade/Market

17:11

SAMANTHA HAWLEY: Many of those who’ve been drawn into the fight are reluctant activists.

17:30

Hawley greets Akaash and he shows site of murder

Akaash Chauhan lives with his family in the place they’ve called home for generations. Four years ago his father was shot dead here as he took an afternoon nap.

“And the assailant came down from here yeah?”

AKAASH CHAUHAN: “This is the room. So they came from this side and shot my father and ran away, this way”.

SAMANTHA HAWLEY: “So he was lying in this room, asleep yeah? Or he was sleeping”.

AKAASH CHAUHAN: “He was sleeping in this room”.

17:36

Akaash unlocks door and he and Hawley enter home

SAMANTHA HAWLEY: Three men known to the family entered their home and shot Paleram Chauhan three times. The 52 year old

18:07

Still. Police at murder scene

had dared to complain to the police about the local sand mafia who were destroying communal land.

18:17

Akaash interview

AKAASH CHAUHAN: “When I reached the hospital and saw my father’s dead body I’ve never been able to forget that sight.  Even today it flashes in front of me.

18:26

Akaash shows Hawley photos

18:40

He was shot in the chest, cheeks, forehead.

18:46

Akaash interview

There are certain things I can’t forget. They keep going around in my head”.

18:53

Akaash eats meal

SAMANTHA HAWLEY: Akaash is prepared to name the accused mastermind, a man who we’ll soon encounter at uncomfortably close quarters.

AKAASH CHAUHAN: “He threatened my Papa –

19:02

Akaash interview

that he either back down in a week, or he and his family would be killed. And a week after that, Papa died”.

19:19

Akaash and mother hold photos of father and brother

SAMANTHA HAWLEY: A year later Akaash’s brother, a witness to his father’s murder, was found dead near some train tracks.

19:26

Akaash on laptop looking at Google map of sand mining

Police have refused to investigate. Akaash is adamant he was murdered too. A simple Google map search reveals the extent of the destruction. The white patches mark where the land has been stripped of sand.

19:35

Akaash and Hawley into tuk tuk

Akaash agrees to take us there.

19:51

“Why are you doing it if it’s so dangerous for you?”

AKAASH CHAUHAN: “I’m doing this for my father”.

20:00

SAMANTHA HAWLEY: “If we start filming there, will they try and stop us?”

AKAASH CHAUHAN: “Definitely, definitely”.

20:07

Akaash and Hawley walk through field

SAMANTHA HAWLEY: Akaash takes us as far as the fields his family own, but it’s not safe for him to come any further.

20:14

Men mining sand

We go on and find the sand mining. We film openly. We have an audience but they seem harmless. But before long,

20:21

Sonu and Hawley

a more threatening figure appears.

SONU: “This is not allowed here”.

SAMANTHA HAWLEY: “What isn’t allowed?”

SONU: “It is illegal”.

SAMANTHA HAWLEY: “Oh this? Oh is it?

SONU: “Yeah, yeah”.

SAMANTHA HAWLEY: “Why is it illegal?”

SONU: “It is not allowed”.

SAMANTHA HAWLEY: We have come face to face with the alleged murderer of Akaash’s father. This is Sonu, the man we’re told runs this illegal operation.

20:34

Sand miners

He comes from the same village as Akaash and he makes it very clear we’re not welcome.

SONU: “He will not attack you.

20:58

Sonu and Hawley

I am standing here, so he will not attack you”.

SAMANTHA HAWLEY: “Attack you?”

As foreign journalists we’re unlikely to face any violence from Sonu, a protection not enjoyed by his fellow villagers.

21:10

Akaash interview

AKAASH CHAUHAN: “My father’s fight has become my fight. I am pursuing this case. The illegal sand mining is still going on. My father was against it, I am against it and so is my family”.

21:24

Sand mine site

SAMANTHA HAWLEY: The problem is that no one knows exactly how much illegal sand mining is taking place and how much money is being generated. Conservative estimates put it at more than $250 million a year, others go much higher and if anyone does get caught, the fines are negligible.

21:45

Hawley driving with Sumaira

Sumaira Abdulali, the woman we met earlier on Kihim Beach, spends her time trying to gather as much data as possible. It’s a dangerous job. After photographing illegal dredging, she was almost run off the road by someone she thinks was trying to kill her.

22:08

Driving over bridge

SUMAIRA ABDULALI: “You can see that this, this boundary isn’t very secure”.

SAMANTHA HAWLEY: “No I can see a part of it was missing there, yeah”.

SUMAIRA ABDULALI: “And we were both driving, he suddenly accelerated and he tried to hit me from the side, just about here in the middle of the bridge”.

SAMANTHA HAWLEY: “Yeah there’s a really long drop there”.

SUMAIRA ABDULALI: “Yes a really long drop. So I just very sharply braked and he hit me on the side and the front rather than straight on the side

22:30

Stills. Damage to Sumaira’s car

which would have toppled us over. I mean in the heat of the moment you don’t feel terrified but now I feel terrified

22:54

Sumaira and Hawley driving

when I think about it”.

SAMANTHA HAWLEY:  “Yeah”.

23:00

Sand mining

SAMANTHA HAWLEY:  Nearly seven years later, Sumaira is still fighting to have the people who attacked her that day brought to justice.

23:03

Illegal sand mining is the dirty secret at the heart of India’s booming economy, but there’s little political appetite to deal with it.

23:12

Policeman inspects truck

There’s strong evidence that police and other officials are often paid off but Sumaira believes that if the government wanted to do something to control the sand gangs, it could.

SUMAIRA ABDULALI: “The answer would be so simple. All it requires is to gather data as to how much sand is required for construction

23:24

Sumaira interview

and to figure out where it’s coming from and to make sure that there are declarations of this raw material in every building project”.

23:46

Children running through sand

SAMANTHA HAWLEY: It would also help if the Indian government enforced its own laws and protected the ordinary people trying to uphold them. But the future looks bleak and the sand is running out.

23:54

Credits over:

Reporter - Samantha Hawley
Producer - Bronwen Reed
India Producer - Savitri Chaudhury
Camera - Phil Hemingway
Editor - Stuart Miller

Executive producer: Marianne Leitch

abc.net.au/foreign

© 2017

24:13

24:34