







































Ecology, Economy and Society–the INSEE Journal 2 (1): 31–42, January 2019 

 
SPECIAL SECTION: Ecological Distribution Conflicts in India 
 

Discontent, Conflict, Social Resistance and Violence 
at Non-metallic Mining Frontiers in India 
 

Arpita Bisht  
 
Abstract: The twenty-first century is witnessing increased extraction of natural 
resources across the globe, which includes biomass, metal ores and tailings, fossil 
energy carriers, and industrial and construction materials. Increasing extraction of 
resources is largely a result of either intensification of extractive operations in 
existing extractive locations, or as a result of expansion of frontiers of resource 
extraction to new geospatial locations across the world. Amongst these, extraction 
of construction materials has been the highest in the last century. This article 
analyses conflicts surrounding such minerals which are non-metallic, low value, and 
extracted to a large degree by local or regional extractive agents, with a special 
focus on the social violence exerted in such conflicts.   
 
Keywords: sand mining, ecological distribution conflicts, EJAtlas, extractivism, 
social violence 

 

1. INTRODUCTION 

In the twenty-first century, extraction of natural resources has increased all 
across the world. Between 1900 and 2005, total global raw material 
consumption—which includes biomass, metal ores and tailings, fossil 
energy carriers, and industrial and construction materials—saw a massive 
increase from 7,117 million tons to 59,474 million tons (Krausmann et al. 
2009). Among these resource groups, extraction of construction materials 
witnessed the maximum increase growing by a factor of 34, closely followed 
by ores and industrial minerals which increased by a factor of 27 
(Krausmann et al. 2009). This increase in extraction of construction 

 
 The Energy Resource Institute (TERI), Darbari Seth Block, IHC Complex, Lodhi Road, 
New Delhi 110 003, India; arpitabisht1990@gmail.com 

Copyright © Bisht 2019. Released under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 
4.0 International licence (CC BY-NC 4.0) by the author.  

Published by Indian Society for Ecological Economics (INSEE), c/o Institute of Economic 
Growth, University Enclave, North Campus, Delhi 110007.  

ISSN: 2581-6152 (print); 2581-6101 (web). 

DOI: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v2i1.54  

mailto:arpitabisht1990@gmail.com
https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v2i1.54


Ecology, Economy and Society–the INSEE Journal [32] 

minerals, such as sand and gravel, appears as a certain fact although it is 
true that sufficient data is not available to corroborate this for most regions 
of the world. Extraction of minerals related to the construction industry are 
of strategic importance, and likely to see further increase, specifically in the 
fast urbanizing and industrializing economies of the Global South across 
the world. This article deals with conflicts surrounding such minerals, which 
are non-metallic, low value, and extracted to a large degree by local or 
regional extractive agents. 

World over the growing extraction of resources is largely a result of either 
intensification of extractive operations in existing extractive locations or 
expansion of frontiers of resource extraction to new geospatial locations. 
Since the 2000s, the bulk of resources are extracted in the rapidly 
industrializing countries such as China, India, and various countries in Latin 
America (Özkaynak et al. 2012). The growing resource extraction in these 
countries has led to expanding frontiers of resource extraction into physical 
spaces inhabited by people. This frontier expansion often directly impacts 
the lives of local communities through displacement. The resultant 
ecological degradation, further impacts their lives and livelihoods, directly 
or indirectly, by altering the patterns of their access to natural resources 
(Martinez-Alier 2002), which they are often dependent on for sustenance. 
As such, this expansion often results in the generation of Ecological 
Distribution Conflicts (EDCs) and resistance movements by affected 
people “in defence of communitarian livelihoods against resource 
extraction” (Martinez-Alier et al. 2014). In this article, EDCs against sand 
and gravel extraction in India are analyzed. 

The second section of this article presents a brief look at how non-metallic 
minerals are linked to urbanization in India. The third section presents 
discussions around the most common and troubling facet of such mineral 
“extractivism” in India—that of social violence. It also discusses the 
outcomes of some of the cases of social resistance movements against such 
forms of “extractivism” over the past two decades. The fourth section 
concludes the article.    

 

2. URBANIZATION, THE CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY AND 
DEVELOPMENT MINERALS “EXTRACTIVISM” 

In a previous article on environmental conflicts in India (Bisht and Gerber 
2017) the main focus was on iron ore and other metallic materials. Here the 
focus is on so-called “development minerals”, which are minerals and 
materials that are mined, processed, manufactured and used domestically in 
industries such as construction, manufacturing, and agriculture. They can 



[33] Arpita Bisht 

further be sub-divided into four broad categories: a) construction minerals, 
which include sand and gravel; b) industrial minerals (calcium, feldspar, talc, 
graphite, dolomite, mica etc., including ilmenite as a titanium ore); c) semi-
precious minerals (opal, amythyst, garnet, etc.); and d) dimension stones 
(such as granite, limestone and marble). The extraction of such minerals 
often occurs within unclear and uncertain legal and regulatory frameworks. 
Further, there is often a lack of publicly available, reliable, and easily 
accessible geological data with regard to quantities of extraction of these 
commodities (Hilson 2016).  

As in other newly industrializing economies, India’s contribution to mineral 
extractivism has significantly expanded in the past few decades. Since the 
early 1980s, India’s metabolic profile experienced sustained growth in 
absolute as well as per capita material consumption of natural resources 
(Singh et al. 2012). Apart from bulk minerals like iron ore and bauxite, these 
construction minerals, including but not limited to stone, marble, sand, 
granite etc, have seen increasing extraction across the country (Joy and Rao 
1988; Gadgil and Guha 1994).  

Development minerals are largely utilized in the construction industry, 
therefore, with predicted increases in urbanization, their consumption is 
likely to go up in the coming decades. The rural population of India 
increased from 298 million in 1951, to 833 million in 2011. Further, the 
population residing in urban areas1 in India, as per Census records, 
increased from 11.4% to 30% between 1901 and 2011. By 2030, according 
to the UN State of the World Population (2007), India’s urban population 
would be 40.76% of its total population.  

These figures represent a massive increase in urban populations, which will 
require further expansion of existing infrastructure to support such a 
transition. Currently, India’s metro-cities accommodate a large section of its 
population. Mumbai and Delhi, two largest cities, have populations of close 
to 22.1 million, and 28 million, respectively, as per the 2011 census of India. 
However, expansion of more cities and towns is expected in the near 
future, further adding to the growth of the construction industry. 

Two major factors are responsible for the boom in construction activities: 
private construction and public expansion of urbanization. As disposable 
incomes have increased, it has raised the demand for private residential 
accommodations. This has led to an expansion of construction all across 
the country, particularly in the peripheral areas of large cities. Besides the 

 
1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urban_area 



Ecology, Economy and Society–the INSEE Journal [34] 

increase in private construction activities across the country, the 
government of India, in order to address issues related to overcrowding and 
urban management has embarked upon the Smart Cities Mission. This 
program envisions and supports the creation of 100 “smart” cities which 
will serve as model areas based on integrated development plan, which is 
expected to have a rub-off effect on other parts of the city, and nearby 
cities and towns in India, among others, with the aim of reducing 
population burdens in the five metro cities. As a result of all these policies, 
there is a predicted necessary increase in construction and urbanization 
activities in India in the near future. 

Of all the development minerals, sand and gravel are major interest being 
the basic ingredient of the construction industry. Sand utilized in the 
construction industry is usually only available in and around rivers. Other 
forms of sand such as desert sand cannot replace river sand in its utility for 
construction purposes (Rajendran 2013). This industry operates with 
multiple small-scale, regional and local agents, and involves a large degree of 
informality and often illegality in its operations. Available studies estimate 
that of the total number of mines producing development minerals in India, 
about 90% are informal. These informal mines generate close to 50% of the 
total output of development minerals (Chakravorty 2001).  

Previous research unraveled extraction of sand, which is widespread and 
often carried out illegally by small-scale actors near rivers or beaches, as the 
cause of most ecological distribution conflicts (Bisht and Gerber 2017). The 
EJAtlas had reported only eight cases of sand and gravel conflicts in India 
as of December 2018 (out of nearly 300 environmental conflicts) but this is 
due to lack of coverage. 

 

3. DISCONTENT, CONFLICT AND SOCIAL RESISTANCE AT 
DEVELOPMENT MINERAL FRONTIERS IN INDIA  

A significant percentage of the total documented EDCs in India are related 
to mining of non-metallic minerals. As per a database of 100 (non-fuel) 
mineral conflicts in India, 67% were accounted for a variety of minerals 
which fall under the category of development minerals. Despite the smaller 
scale individual operations, sand extractivism in the past two decades has 
resulted in the generation of the highest numbers of EDCs in India, 
representing over 42% of the overall cases documented in the research 
conducted by Bisht and Gerber (2017). 

 

 



[35] Arpita Bisht 

3.1. Geographical location of conflicts 

Locations of spaces of non-metallic mining differ significantly from that of 
metallic mining, as well as mining of fossil fuels. This is specifically true of 
sand mining. The primary difference between the two is that development 
minerals, particularly sand, are often more geographically scattered as 
compared to metallic or fossil fuel resources. As such, development 
minerals are not found to be located in spaces which can be referred to as 
“extreme peripheries” but are rather found to be dispersed across “core” 
regions including peripheries of cities, urban habitats, as well as large towns. 
In contrast, metallic mining is found to be largely located in rural or tribal 
spaces, which are geographically distant from cities, and urban 
establishments. Two reasons for this difference are a) the larger availability 
of development minerals, especially sand, such as across the length of river 
beds, and b) the requirement of such minerals for expansion of existing 
urban settlements. Such minerals also tend to be used in greater quantity at 
the local and regional level in comparison to metallic minerals.  

3.2. Discontent and causes of conflicts 

Extraction of different development minerals results in a different degree of 
ecological degradation depending upon scales of operations. In the case of 
low-value minerals, these scales can be highly variable, unlike in the case of 
mining of bulk minerals which are necessarily large-scale operations. For 
instance, sand, if extracted in small quantities for the purpose of 
construction of one house, or even a rural residential complex is not likely 
to result in a permanent or severe degradation of the river bed from where 
it was extracted. However, when operations are conducted in order to 
export river-bed sand to urban spaces for the purpose to large scale 
construction activities over long periods of time, this could have a severe 
and drastic impact on local ecosystems. These impacts are specially related 
to access and availability of water resources for local residents for their 
housing, agricultural or livelihood requirements. For instance, in the case of 
the Chakki riverbed in Himachal Pradesh, sand mining had resulted in the 
reduction of the originally 1 km wide riverbed to a 10-meter wide nallah, 
and various smaller nallahs, which were previously full, were completely 
dried up (EJAtlas 2017a).  

Further, conflicts can arise out of purely ecological reasons such as 
conservation of water, or for the preservation of fish and amphibians which 
reside in certain rivers. For instance, in Gwalior district of Madhya Pradesh, 
illegal sand mining is rampant within the National Chambal Wildlife 
Sanctuary, which is home to critically endangered amphibian the gharial. 
Forest officials have been taking action against illegal sand mining in the 



Ecology, Economy and Society–the INSEE Journal [36] 

area which, as of 2016, had led to impounding of at least 150 trucks of 
illegally extracted sand (Bindra 2016).  

Finally, river ecosystems are often considered sacred in many parts of India. 
The degradation of such sacred rivers can also result in conflicts on the 
basis of cultural or religious factors. This has been observed, for instance, in 
the case of resistance against the exploitation of river sand along the Ganga. 
Illegal sand mining and stone crushing along the Ganga has been a 
persistent issue which is of urgent importance given that the river and its 
tributaries support a large population downstream, which implies negative 
impact for a large section of the poor and agriculture-dependent 
downstream population. Social resistance seeking action by the state 
authorities has been ongoing for a long time. Unfortunately, in 2011, Swami 
Nigamananda Saraswati, one of the most vocal activists campaigning 
against the extractive operations, died after a four-month fast (Singh et al. 
2014). 

3.3. Social resistance movements  

It is interesting to note that the actors involved in resistance movements 
against development minerals in India are significantly different from that 
of metal mining conflicts. Whereas metal mining conflicts often involve 
rural farmers or indigenous communities, anti-development mineral 
extractivism conflicts are led in larger numbers by urban actors. This could 
be due to the fact that large scale metallic mining often has large and 
powerful corporations, which are often privately owned, and often involve 
global or international capital, mining of development minerals is usually 
carried out by a larger number of small-scale players who run their 
operations at local or regional levels, and who bear significant clout in those 
regions.  

Another feature of mining of development minerals in India is that they are 
prone, to a greater extent as compared to metallic mining, to illegal 
extraction activities. This is largely given the informal nature of the 
extractive activity. For instance, the previous analysis indicated that among 
all conflicts documented, 45% were related to illegal extraction of sand and 
other minerals and that 81% of the sand mining conflicts were against 
illegal extraction activities. The illegal nature of the activity has also resulted 
in the involvement of mafia as well as local authorities complicit with illegal 
activities to varying degrees (Singh et al. 2014).  

Compared to resistance against metal mining, resistance to mining of 
development minerals is often short-lived but tends to be much more 
frequent given the larger numbers of sand mining cases. However, there are 
several cases which have lasted for over a decade. For instance, previous 



[37] Arpita Bisht 

research showed that 6 out of the 41 cases of sand mining were lasted 10 
years, if not more. The instances of successes of local residents against such 
illegal sand mining are far and few between (Aware 2018).  

3.4. Beach mining for minerals 

Sand and gravel are mostly mined for building materials. However, in India 
as elsewhere, there is a growing incidence of conflicts arising from mining 
of beach sand. Beach sand mining is a lucrative enterprise because apart 
from being a source for the supply of raw materials for the construction 
industry, it is also a source of minerals such as ilmenite (an ore for 
titanium), zircon, rutile, garnet and others. One pertinent example reported 
in the EJAtlas (2017b) is that of beach sand mining in Tamil Nadu. In 2013, 
the district collector of Tuticorin, Mr. Ashish Kumar, conducted a raid on 
illegal sand mines, and was transferred to another post less than eight hours 
later. On 8 August 2013, The Hindu reported that the special inspection 
teams that conducted raids at the sand quarry of V.V. Minerals in Tuticorin 
district, discovered the presence of  large-scale illegal sand mining along 
stretches at Vaipar, Vembar, Periyasamipuram beachs, and in various other 
stretches in Vilathikulam taluka. It be noted that V.V. Minerals is owned by 
entrepreneur S. Vaikundarajan, a multi-crore business-owner and one of the 
most powerful men in the state.The report further stated that the amount 
of fine required to be paid by offenders would be determined based on the  
final report submitted to the Collector. In the follow up report the next day, 
Mr. Ashish Kumar said that whereas legal mining in the region was 
permitted over only 4 hectares of leased land, illegal mining in the Vaipar 
region was being conducted over more than 30 hectares of poromboke 
[commons] land. The quantity of this illegally mined raw sand was 81,000 
cubic meters. Over and above this, illegally mined beach sand, was 
measured to be over 230,000 tonnes. These are legal offences, and liable to 
punishment under charges of theft under the Indian Penal Code (IPC), 
under various Acts of the State as well as Union government, including the 
Tamil Nadu Public Properties Prevention of Damage and Loss Act, 1992, 
Illicit Mining and Minerals Act, Environmental Protection Act, 1986 and 
Coastal Regulation Zone notification, 2006 (The Hindu, 2013). As per the 
Collector, the raids were made on the basis of five complaints of illegal sand 
mining by fishermen in the months of June and July, which were based on 
their grievances from sea erosion and other environmental damages due to 
indiscriminate mining at beaches (The Hindu, 2013; Rajendra, 2013). Four 
years later, on 28 March 2017, The Hindu ran another story concerning 
illegal beach sand mining for minerals where it was reported that as per the 
Collector M. Ravikumar, after a raid of 15 locations, close to 30 go-downs 
of beach sand were sealed in Thoothukudi district. These go-downs were 



Ecology, Economy and Society–the INSEE Journal [38] 

found to contain vast quantities of minerals mined from beach sand such as 
garnet, ilmenite, zircon and rutile, which amounted to a total of 455,245 
tonnes of beach minerals and 312,314 tonnes of raw beach sand. As per the 
report: “The searches were initiated by the district administration in the 
wake of the suspension of Assistant Director of Mines Krishnamohan over 
allegations that he had produced fake documents to facilitate the illegal 
export of beach minerals belonging to V.V. Mineral, a leading firm. Beach 
sand mining was banned by the State government in August 2013”. 

In conclusion, based on the EJAtlas reports on these cases in Tamil Nadu, 
one can see the struggle of fishermen and (some) state officers against the 
local firms, which, apparently illegally, engage in large scale sand mining for 
industrial minerals.  

3.5. Social violence of extractive capital  

In comparison to metal mining conflicts in India, the conflicts in 
development mineral extractivism, especially that of sand mining, has been 
quite violent. This is partly owing to the involvement of locally powerful 
extractive agents functioning under an un-regulated, or an ill-regulated 
system, and partly owing to the complicity, or direct involvement of local 
politically powerful people, or government agents in operations. Over the 
years, many reports of “accidental” deaths of activists, protesters, 
journalists, volunteers, civilians, and even police personnel associated with 
anti-sand mining campaigns or activities have come to light. Further, owing 
to the nexus between government actors, politicians and extractive agents, 
and mining mafia instances of transfers of bureaucrats, civil servants and 
police officers, who take or attempt to take a strong stance against sand 
mining, are frequent (Arasu, 2016). One of the most prominent examples of 
this is the case of IPS officer Durga Shakti Nagpal who was transferred 
from her post in 2013 due to being active in preventing illegal sand mining 
in the state of Uttar Pradesh (Mandhana, Wall Street Journal, 2013). There 
have even been deaths of several such prominent personnel associated with 
sand mafia. The most conservative estimates indicate that the death toll 
related to sand mining is likely to be in the hundreds across India (Action 
Aid, 2016).  

Some prominent examples of such incidents include the case of murder of 
IPS officer Narendra Kumar (IPS) and Head Constable G. Kanakaraj. Both 
were crushed to death by tractors carrying illegally-mined sand which they 
had attempted to stop in Madhya Pradesh in 2012, and in Tamil Nadu in 
2014, respectively.  

Volunteers and local villagers who watch out for sand mining operations 
are also often targeted as has been observed in several cases. In 2013, 



[39] Arpita Bisht 

villagers Rajesh and Karthick were hacked to death in Tamil Nadu. The two 
had kept a watch on sand mining operations in their area (Rajasekaran, 
2015). Several other such cases have been reported from across the country. 
In 2015, Sandeep Kothari, a freelance journalist for newspaper Nayi Duniya 
was found murdered in Balaghat district of Madhya Pradesh. The journalist 
was famous in the region, and already well known to the local police due to 
his active investigative work on illegal sand mining and land grabbing 
operations in the region. His gruesome death on 21 June 2015 had the 
involvement of members of the mining mafia, who strangled him and 
dumped him next to a railroad tract, and burned him alive. These incidents 
show the violence and power of sand mining mafia at local levels in India 
(IFEX 2015; Sharma 2015). On 6 March 2016, Narendra Kumar Sharma, a 
forest guard, who was attempting to stop vehicles carrying illegal sand was 
crushed under the loaded tractor (Bindra 2016). These are only a few 
documented examples of the extreme violence which is a part of sand 
extractivism within India.  

3.6. Outcomes  

A wide range of outcomes is observed in the cases of social resistance 
against development mineral extractivism in India. First, there are cases 
where mining was banned or extractive operations stopped. Second, there 
are cases where some form of a legal decision was taken by the Courts, 
which had either stopped or attempted to stop mining operations. 
Examples include the several cases of sand mining bans in different states 
across India such as Haryana, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Tamil Nadu as 
well as orders by the National Green Tribunal (NGT) or the Supreme 
Court of India. For instance, in the case of sand mining along the Chakki 
riverbed, the National Green Tribunal, in August 2013 placed a blanket ban 
on any mining activity without a prior environmental clearance (Jitesh 2013; 
Mahajan, 2014). However, despite the court rulings, in many instances, local 
villagers, activists, and officials residing in the region claim that illegal 
mining continues unabated (The Tribune, 2014). Thus, orders and bans by 
the NGT, the Supreme Court, the High Courts have been, to a large degree, 
unsuccessful in their attempts to completely halt illegal operations. 
However, their orders prepare the ground for their receptiveness in the 
prominent legislative bodies of the Government. Finally, there are cases 
where both official action and social resistance have been ineffective, or 
unable to resist or even reduce extractive activities. This is evident in the 
several cases of sand mining in Tamil Nadu along the Amaravathi and 
Cauvery rivers (EJAtlas 2017b).  

 



Ecology, Economy and Society–the INSEE Journal [40] 

4. CONCLUSIONS  

Globally the accounts of “social metabolism” show that the tonnage of 
materials extracted for the building industry is growing. Thus, sand and 
gravel account for the largest volume of solid material extracted globally. 
These and other so-called “development minerals” differ from other forms 
of mineral extractivism in that they are characterized by relatively smaller 
scales of individual operations, often do not involve global capital, are more 
geographically dispersed than metals, and produce low-value bulk 
commodities, which are not linked to global commodity chains. However, 
they are of immense strategic importance, especially from the perspective of 
emerging and increasingly urbanizing economies of the Global South.  

In India, sand has generated the largest number of conflicts compared to all 
other minerals. Sand and its importance for the construction industry has 
resulted in the consistent expansion of sand extractivism over at least the 
past two decades in India. Apart from the ecological destruction, harm to 
several species of endangered flora and fauna, and alterations in patterns of 
access to river beds and natural resources by local people, one striking facet 
of sand extractivism in India is the violence associated with the activity.  

Violence is perpetrated by so-called mining mafia, which is an outcome of 
the nexus between local politicians and extractive agents, as well as a result 
of the high profits which miners make from illegal activities which creates 
unequal power dynamics. A broad range of actors, from activists to police 
officers have faced the violence of various levels from verbal and physical 
harassment to murder of people involved in resistance to illegal mining.  

In India, sand is considered to be a minor mineral as per the MMDR 
(2015), and regulations surrounding sand mining are under the ambit of 
state governments, rather than the Central Government. There is an urgent 
need to restructure regulations around sand extractivism in India in order to 
prevent further ecological losses, as well as loss of human life.  

 

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