Illegal mining: SC takes note of killing of forest ranger in Rajasthan

The Supreme Court called for mandatory preventive detention in illegal mining cases after a Rajasthan forest ranger was allegedly killed by a dumper while stopping mining. The court sought Rajasthan’s response and scheduled the matter for October 6

New Delhi: Taking note of a recent incident in which a forest ranger was killed after being allegedly hit by a dumper while he was trying to stop illegal mining in Rajasthan, the Supreme Court on Wednesday said there should be mandatory preventive detention in these cases.

The matter was mentioned before a bench of justices Vikram Nath, Augustine George Masih and Sandeep Mehta in a pending suo motu case titled ‘In Re: Illegal sand mining in the National Chambal Sanctuary and threat to endangered aquatic wildlife’.

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The advocate, who mentioned the matter, said another incident has come to light and a forest officer has been crushed to death by a dumper in Rajasthan.

The bench posted the matter for hearing on October 6.

“Come prepared with a response,” the bench told the counsel appearing for Rajasthan.

“There should be mandatory preventive detention in these cases,” the top court observed.

The incident occurred late on Monday in the Chhoti Sadri forest area when forest ranger Pratap Singh Chundawat and a forest guard reached the spot following inputs about illegal mining, the officials had said on September 22.

According to officials, Singh tried to stop a dumper carrying soil when the driver allegedly hit him and dragged him along with his motorcycle for several metres before fleeing.

The injured ranger was taken to a hospital and later referred to the district hospital in Nimbahera, where he died during treatment, officials had said.

Divisional Forest Officer Suresh Chandra Agarwal said the department had received information about illegal mining in the forest area and a team went to the spot to take action.

On July 22, the apex court had said preventive detention orders should be passed against those facilitating illegal sand mining activities in and around the National Chambal Sanctuary, as such people were eating into natural resources and deserve no sympathy.

The National Chambal Sanctuary, also called the National Chambal Gharial Wildlife Sanctuary, is a 5,400-sq km tri-state protected area. Besides the endangered gharial (long-snouted crocodile), it is home to the red-crowned roof turtle and the endangered Ganges river dolphin.

Located on the Chambal river, near the tripoint of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh, the sanctuary was first declared a protected area in Madhya Pradesh in 1978 and now constitutes a long and narrow eco-reserve co-administered by the three states.

On May 26, the top court passed a slew of directions for effective implementation of environmental and statutory safeguards in the regions affected by rampant illegal sand mining within and around the National Chambal Gharial Sanctuary.

It had asked the three states to undertake immediate and effective steps for the augmentation of field-level enforcement officials in the respective forest departments, including recruitment to vacant posts of forest guards and other frontline enforcement personnel.

The apex court had also directed the states to undertake stringent, continuous and coordinated enforcement action against vehicles and machinery involved in illegal mining and transportation activities within and around the affected regions.

It had directed that appropriate criminal prosecution be initiated not merely against the drivers of vehicles involved in illegal mining and transportation activities, “but also against the owners, financiers, operators, contractors and all other persons forming part of, facilitating or otherwise connected with organised illegal mining network operating in the affected regions”.