Little by little, residents of Pavoor Uliyakudru island, on the Nethravati, have seen the river close in on them over the years. The 200-odd residents blame this on the incessant illegal sand extraction.
On one end of the island, a huge gash has formed on a coast, while roots of fallen trees can be seen in the swirling waters of the river, at the other end.
“Every year we lose more trees and more land. Every year, the flood water of the river increases during the monsoon,” said a resident.
A resident said that out of an approximate area of 90 acres, around 20 has been lost due to sand extraction and erosion. The residents demanded anonymity after allegedly receiving threats from the people carrying out the extraction.
“The waters are shallow around the island and so the sand is easy for them to load. We see around 50 such loads being taken out daily,” said a resident.
Most of the families depend on fishing and numerous residents have said their catch has reduced by more than half because of the extraction. “The extraction has left pits on the river bed. When we throw our nets, the fish escape into the pits. A decade back, we used to get around 30 kg of fish daily. Now, we get around 12 only,” said a resident.
The inaccessibility of the island also has led to a plethora of problems for the residents. The only government school on the island closed five years ago and children have to travel across the river to get to a school on the mainland. Electrical malfunctions take about a week to fix and the salt content in their wells has been increasing.
Admitting the difficulty in stopping illegal sand extraction in the area, Mangalore taluk tahsildar Mohan Rao said his report on the island suggested banning extraction within 1,000m of the island. “We don’t have the capabilities to chase the boats down. By the time we arrive at the islands, the boats would have gone elsewhere,” he said.
He said the report also suggest operating an anganwadi, nominating a health worker there, and for the police to visit the island three times a week to keep a track on the mining.
