sand is turning out to be a nightmare the state requires nearly 20 million tonnes every year and its appetite is increasing sand is virtually gobbled by housing and infrastructure which are growing at a rapid clip natural sand cannot meet even a third of the states demand illegal mining has become rampant after plundering riverbeds streams and beaches sand suppliers are zeroing in on wet farmlands the huge demandsupply gap of natural sand is being filled illegally by filtered sand sandy loam is washed and sold as sand by farmers owning land along river beds tank beds and streams agriculture is not lucrative anymore to make quick money farmers along river beds have resorted to sand mining the fields are now pockmarked with craters some of them 5060 ft deep these lands are no more arable said m ramu a resident of h mogenahalli in ramanagaram district and an activist of the karnataka rajya raitha sangha the farmers extract sand and sell it to middlemen for rs 60009000 a truckload depending on its quality in many cases they lease land to sand contractors enabling them to excavate as much sand as possible by the time sand reaches bangalore the price touches anywhere between rs 20000 and rs 45000 a truckload besides labour and transportation costs we have to bribe revenue officials and police till we reach the city says a contractor the monitoring mechanisms are so weak that the business is simply undeterred now villagers are fighting against the mafia to protect their farms nine farmers from vittalapura and kudalakuppe villages in mandya district approached the high court seeking action against people involved in illegal sand mining in the hemavathy river bed the farmers complained that illegal mining had affected their land on june 27 2013 the court ordered that sand mining in the entire kr pet taluk should not be allowed pwd minister h c mahadevappa admits theres illegal sand mining in the state he says the government has increased roundtheclock vigil and set up checkposts at strategic places to curb the activity the government feels the present mining policy has caused losses to the exchequer and inconvenience to the public it has set up a cabinet subcommittee headed by the pwd minister to frame a new sand mining policy the industry is worried the president of the confederation of real estate developers association of india credai in karnataka nagaraj reddy says sand has become almost unaffordable as it has touched rs 40000 or more per truckload the banning of sand from river beds will affect the construction industry leading to unemployment river sand is a must for plastering the government has to come out with immediate solutions and identify places for sand mining said reddy the bjp government had framed a sand mining policy in 2011 and introduced sand auctioning with deputy commissioners monitoring the process during 201213 the government earned rs 17657 crore this year from april to june it earned rs 3687 crore prior to