Illegal Sand Mining

The unlawful, typically unlicensed or quota-exceeding extraction of sand from a riverbed, beach or other natural deposit, documented by conservation and law enforcement bodies including the Wildlife Justice Commission as a distinct and fast-growing category of environmental crime from mineral or ore mining because sand, though seemingly abundant, takes geological timescales to form and is being extracted in many rivers far faster than it can naturally replenish. Illegal sand extraction, often organized by criminal networks known in several countries as a sand mafia, is documented as causing riverbank collapse, biodiversity loss and saltwater intrusion into freshwater aquifers, and in India, Kenya and Nigeria among other countries it has been linked to violent conflict over control of extraction sites that has cost hundreds of lives.