noida the rain managed to do what the district administration could not for long the continuing downpour has dampened illegal sand mining operations in gautam budh nagar with officials of the mining department saying that the temporary relief would aid them greatly in identifying spots where such illegal operations are carried out officials will now be able to locate illegal bridges and structures left behind by the sand mining mafia according to officials of the mining department the increasing levels of yamuna had implied that sand mining on the banks was no longer feasible sand mining according to police sources is taking place not only in specific villages from where there is greater connectivity with areas which are construction hot beds but across the banks of the yamuna yamuna enters the district through kalindi kunj and illegal sand mining is done along the 60km stretch in the area called khaadar over 2000 acres of floodplains are being mined while license as of 2012 had only been given to four companies national sand supply company okhla sand supply company oriental company and vaibhav bhatia said a senior police officer police sources said that the sand mafia in the district existed in the form of a powerful syndicate without whose permission not even a single gram of sand exchanges hand its extremely difficult to crack down on the sand mafia because of the scope of their operation the mafia in western up shifted over to construction after the realty boom in upncr the sandy banks along hindon and yamuna provided perfect sources for illegal sand mining said a senior police officer the sand mining operation in the district has become more organized with time alongside a parallel in increase in the districts popularity for real estate projects extraction of sand without taking the due environmental measures directly leads to erosion of land which in turn leads to an ecological collapse of the area due to the direct loss of nutrientrich upper layers of soil the issue of sand mining isnt one which has been taken up seriously by the authorities over the years sand mining has become extremely political especially since its directly related to keeping construction costs down in cases of big residential projects said officials of the mining department the officials cited the vast ecological destruction along the konkan coast as an example of the destructive nature of such illegal sand mining in uttar pradesh a similar drive and spread of awareness is required especially due to the rapid pace at which developmental projects are taking place sand is an essential item in construction and is used to make concrete the cheaper one gets it the lower the cost of overall production an official explained