On a quiet summer morning this past April, I logged into a virtual meeting room and was met with an unexpected melody. While the invitation was for a ‘Data Sprint’, I was welcomed not by a dry briefing, but by the soulful strains of Summertime by Billy Strings and Marcus King—a vibrant blend of blues, jazz, and bluegrass.
For a moment, I fumbled with my keyboard, assuming my teenage son had left a music streaming site running on my laptop. I scrambled through my open tabs to hit mute, only to realise the ‘error’ wasn’t on my end. Siddharth Agarwal, the host, soon cleared up the musical mystery behind the citizen-driven initiative of data sprint.
“Sifting through endless news reports on river sand mining can be depressing work,” Agarwal explained with a smile. “We play music during our virtual data sprints to keep the energy up. Participants are welcome to send in their own music requests.”
Agarwal, 35, is the Founder-Director of the Kolkata-based Veditum India Foundation, a research and media organisation working at the intersection of environment, culture, and society. An IIT graduate in Aerospace Engineering, he is no stranger to the realities of the Indian landscape, having walked over 6,000 kilometres across the country to trace its rivers and tributaries.
Launched in 2023, India Sand Watch is Veditum’s flagship environmental accountability project. Its mission is simple yet ambitious: to protect India’s rivers from the devastating effects of unsustainable sand mining. By combining public information with advanced machine learning, the project creates a body of evidence that empowers journalists, researchers, and policymakers to take collective action.
To date, the India Sand Watch platform has compiled nearly 3,000 entries, including news reports, mining observations, tender documents, and court orders. Beyond Madhya Pradesh, these data sprints have covered the Chambal, Delhi, and various regions across the South and North East India.
The Crisis in Our Riverbeds
Sand is the most extracted mineral on Earth. It is estimated that India consumes over 700 million tonnes of sand annually—the vast majority of it destined for the construction industry. River sand is particularly sought after because its grain size is ideal for binding concrete.
However, this demand comes at a heavy price. Illegal and excessive mining is triggering a trifecta of economic, social, and environmental crises. By deepening river channels and lowering water tables, mining accelerates bank erosion and increases flood risks. Ecologically, it is a disaster: destroying aquatic habitats, disrupting biodiversity, and poisoning the food webs that local communities rely on.
With India’s sand demand projected to hit 1.5 billion tonnes by 2030, the pressure on our rivers has never been greater. At present, over 35 million people are employed in the sand mining industry in the country.
At the heart of the India Sand Watch project is an open data platform— an annotated archive that is collaboratively built with local communities, partners, and active citizens. To co-build this platform and expand a database of information on sand mining in Indian rivers, Veditum, along with its partners, organises data sprints to focus on specific geographies and conducts day-long intense data digitisation efforts.
During these sprints, volunteers meticulously review national and local news reports, extracting key details to populate the India Sand Watch database. Once vetted and approved, this information becomes part of an open-access archive. It is a goldmine for anyone—from lawyers seeking evidence for court cases to activists organising on-ground protests.
I attended the 11th data sprint on 26 April, which focused specifically on the rivers of Madhya Pradesh. Co-hosted by Veditum, India Sand Watch, and the Wildlife Conservation Trust, the session brought together 16 participants—11 of whom, like me, were first-timers.
As an environmental journalist, my reasons for joining were professional as well as personal. I frequently rely on data to tell stories, but the reality is that environmental data in India is often unavailable, unreliable, or buried in formats that are nearly impossible to use. This way, citizens can help build open access databases.
“Before this, I never really thought about sand,” shared Idhika Boda, a visual and information designer who attended the session. “But after reading reports of government inaction, violence, and infrastructure damage, I realised even something as simple as construction sand has a complex, often dark, story behind it.”
The data sprint session wasn't just about spreadsheets. It included a storytelling segment facilitated by Veditum’s Madappa PS, where participants visually mapped their reflections on the data they had processed. It was, quite literally, a sprint that started with music and ended with a narrative.
As citizens, we have a vital role to play. By sparing just a couple of hours every few months, we can help build these open-data bridges. Citizen-led data platforms like India Sand Watch ensure that the truth isn't just reported—it’s recorded and used for change.
(You can contribute to the archive or join the next data sprint by visiting the India Sand Watch platform. Your data could be the evidence needed to save a river.)
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