For the last two years, 35-year-old Mohammad Altaf Bohru of Kashmir’s Kulgam district has been working as a scrap dealer.
A father of three, Bohru belongs to Kashmir’s 66,000-strong fishermen community, locally known as gaadi hanjis (those who catch and trade in fish). He lives in Kulgam’s Bhan village which sits on the banks of Vaishav river, a tributary of the Jhelum.
Like his ancestors, Bohru knew only one occupation all his life – catching fish and then selling them in the market.
Not anymore.
Two years ago, Bohru stopped casting his net. “There are no fish in the river now,” said Bohru on a sultry July afternoon while unloading collected scrap material at a warehouse in Kulgam. He blamed it on the excessive sand mining in Vaishav.
Around five years ago, Bohru said, miners shifted from mining sand manually with shovels to using heavy machinery like excavators, bulldozers and earthmovers, even though their use is forbidden under the conditions set by the environmental clearances. Since then, the catch has speedily declined.
This isn’t Bohru’s story alone. More than 70 fishermen families live in the village of Bhan. Almost everyone has switched to other work. Those who still cast their nets in the river say they are just trying their luck. All of them, in unison, blame rampant mining for the loss of their traditional livelihood.
Abdul Rehman, a 60-year-old who has been fishing for the last 40 years, explained: “Earlier, if I covered an area of 3 km in the river, I would catch 6-8 kilograms of fish. Now, for the same distance, I don’t even get 250 grams of fish.”
Experts say mechanised riverbed mining damages aquatic life by extracting sand and gravel at the bottom of the river, which are key to the nourishment and breeding of fish. “From the scientific point of view, riverbed mining should be banned,” said Dr Farooz Ahmad Bhat, dean of the faculty of fisheries department, at Sheri Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology. “Our research concludes that mining is not feasible for the natural ecosystem of the fish.”
But it is not just fish that have been affected by the riverbed mining.
According to villagers, the extensive riverbed mining has changed the topography of the river, affecting water sources, drying up farmland, sometimes even leading to the death of mining workers.
“Earlier, we knew the river like the back of our hand. Now, the mining has left so many deep pits in the river that we are afraid to go fishing,” Bohru added.
Local residents in Bhan recount three deaths in the last few years which occurred during riverbed mining. “Some of the pits are 20 feet deep, how can anyone come out of it if he falls in it?” Bohru asked.