On a warm September afternoon, Mehraj sat in distress at his makeshift vegetable stall in his hometown Shopian, a district headquarter in south Kashmir.
While most of his neighbours and relatives were busy plucking fresh apples and sifting rotten ones out after the recent rains and floods in their farms, 39-year-old Mehraj Din Teli lamented the loss of his five Kanals (0.625 acres) of land that were washed away in successive floods in the last decade, a substantial portion in the recent floods.
Mehraj’s apple orchard runs along the Rambiara rivulet in Shopian that originates in the Pir Panjal Range and later joins the Veshaw near Sangam in Anantnag District in south Kashmir before the confluence finally meets the Jhelum River.
Both the Veshaw and Rambiara, function as two important tributaries to the River Jhelum. Since 2021, Rambiara river has been subjected to endless mining and extraction of gravel, boulders, and sand by non-local pro-business contractors that have threatened the livelihood of about 12 villages located along the banks of Rambiara in the Shopian district.
“I feel like crying,” Mehraj told me woefully as he sat idle on a small tool in his roadside stall.
A part of his land was first washed away during the 2014 floods (around 3 kanals), he says.
But once mining was increased to an unsustainable scale in the river, it further weakened the already impoverished riverbeds. The fragile and unstable beds, in turn, made his orchard more vulnerable, as he helplessly watched portions of his orchard slipping away periodically. Each rainfall adds to the erosion, and whenever the river’s water level rises even slightly, the current diverts toward his orchard, striking its edges and gradually carrying away more land.
Since the mining increased in 2021, Mehraj estimates he has lost an additional 2 kanals. He’s now left with just 1.5 Kanals of land with a few lonely-looking apple trees.
Following the revocation of the special autonomous status of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir in 2019, the central government introduced new rules that gave non-local contractors mining rights in the newly established Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh.
“The bidding process was lopsided, designed to favour outsiders. Nearly 90 percent of the mining contracts were selectively given to non-locals as Kashmir was reeling under complete communications blockade that put locals at a clear disadvantage,” Magray Mansoor, Chairman of Civil Society Shopian told me as he stood on a mound of extracted boulders in the middle of Rambiara canal.
A retired Forest officer, Magray Mansoor, lives in Shopian and is an environmentalist and social activist who has been protesting and campaigning against the intense and endless digging of the Rambiara rivulet that has followed the abrogation.
“Sand mining causes deep puncturing and erosion of riverbeds which threatens livelihood as there is no longer enough sediment to shield and protect nearby areas from flooding,” he said.
Magray asserted that, as per the Mining Rules of 2016 and JKEIAA guidelines, extraction can only occur up to three metres in depth. He added that non-local contractors have willfully disregarded these rules and instead dug more than 18-20 metres (approximately 60 feet) deep, creating severe flood risks for nearby residents.
“The deep punctures left by heavy machinery have made the damage irreversible, making it nearly impossible to restore the river’s original freshwater regular flow,” Magray said and continued, “Local tractor owners, who extracted sand with their hands, did not damage the river as much in fifty years as machinery has done since 2019.”
The uneven waterbeds and the deep cavities left by mass extraction means the rushing water in the river escapes its natural course whenever there is a slight increase in the flow.
“The water becomes wild and rushes towards our orchards and washes out our land and trees. I have lost eighty percent of my land to repeated flash floods,” Mehraj lamented as we went around his farm that looks down on the Rambiara rivulet.
In his farm, trees are dangling precariously between the dry riverbed below and his farm above, left suspended after the floods in September earlier this year. Mehraj fears that one day he will lose all his land holdings if the government doesn't pay heed to their concerns.
“A few years ago when my mother went to a government official crying to save her land from further erosion, she was turned away with a compensation of merely 200 rupees for the loss of crores of worth of land,” Mehraj said.
The Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir is the primary source of apples in India, providing 80% of all apples in the country. According to the data revealed by the government in the Assembly, Kashmir exported 13.12 lakh metric tonnes (1.3 million metric tonnes) of apples outside the Union Territory in the year 2023-24. Apple farming is the largest employment generator in Jammu and Kashmir, with nearly 3.5 million farmers – 27 percent of the region’s population – involved in growing the fruit, whose export contributes more than 8 percent to the region’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
The apple crops destroyed by illegal mining are causing financial losses for the local farmers which is threatening their livelihoods.
Mehraj notes the loss of around 80-90 trees; that meant 600-700 apple boxes sold at a price of Rs 1000-1200 (11.35 USD-13.62 USD) each. This year alone, Mehraj has lost over 7,70,000 INR (8,719.40 USD).
In Kashmir, an apple tree takes at least 10-15 years to grow and begin fruit production. “It is like cradling a baby and then suddenly losing it in our old age,” Mehraj broke down.
For Mehraj and many other farmers whose livelihood is directly dependent on annual apple production, the threat of losing land to illegal mining looms large.
“It is not just the land, it’s the erosion of our dreams and our future. I fear that when my kids grow up, they won’t find any land here to cultivate,” he said while adding, “I mourn the death of my land and trees and a stable income every single day.”
Dr G H Jeelani, Head of the Department, Earth Sciences in the Kashmir University, warns against the use of heavy machinery in Rambiara and Veshaw rivers. “JCBs and other high-end machinery working in these streams have punctured the aquifers- a body of rock and/or sediment that holds groundwater,” Dr Jeelani said in his office in the Kashmir University.
“Most of the water used for drinking and farming comes from groundwater stored in aquifers. These underground reserves are accessed through wells, though aquifers also release water naturally through springs and wetlands,” he explained.
“But this system is now at high risk of depletion, as mass sand and mineral extraction is drawing water faster than it can recharge. This has also sped up the seepage of toxic materials into aquifers. Normally, soil filters water through tiny pores in sediment, but mining has disrupted this process and weakened its ability to keep the water clean,” he said.
“Today, this natural filtration can no longer remove all pollutants, and the contaminated water is even harming irrigation in apple orchards,” he added.
Commenting about the irregular waterbed, he said, “The water table is the boundary between saturated and unsaturated ground, fed by rain, snow, and seepage through soil and rocks. Its level shifts with weather, land use, and topography. When mining disrupts this natural balance and diverts water from its natural course, it lowers the water table in some areas and floods neighbouring lands that can sometimes wash away entire villages, thus creating instability for farming and settlements.”
According to the research paper published in the Science Direct by Dr Jeelani, besides other consequences, noise, dust, and polluted runoff alter soil pH, damage agriculture, and disrupt already stressed ecosystems.
China and India, according to the United Nations Environment Programme, are major hotspots for sand extraction, as both countries lead globally in infrastructure and construction. In India, extracted material such as sand, boulders and gravel are all used in the construction industry, a growing sector that contributes 8.75% of the country's GDP.
The annual 2022-23 report by the Directorate of Geology and Mining of the government of Jammu & Kashmir revealed that during the financial year 2022-23, the Kashmir Valley registered mineral production to the tune of about 121 lac metric tonnes with a collection of Rs 51.45 crore as revenue, driven by various infrastructure projects being undertaken in the Valley.
The report further cites the widening of national highways, construction of a ring road, the Delhi-Katra expressway, railway works, projects by the Border Roads Organisation, the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana for rural roads, and the building of an All India Institute Of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Kashmir as the main reason for the increased demand for minerals and building material.
The report, paradoxically, also notes the immense pressure that such activities are imposing on rivers.
Fifty-year-old Abdul Razak Bhat’s orchard was ravaged by floods on September 3, 2025, in Zawoora village in Shopian district. “It felt like doomsday,” Razak said as he saw the water flow coming in full force towards his farm.
Previously, Razak had already lost a major portion of his land to repeated floods caused in the Rambiara rivulet. “More than the water, it is the sound of it that terrifies me the most in such situations,” he said.
Razak says that the actual strength of the land that he and other farmers along with him cultivated was approximately 52 kanal (6.5 acres) which has been reduced to 15-16 Kanal (2 acres).
“We are six homes dependent on this small land now that sits terrifyingly at the edge of the river, always ready to lose itself in the water,” he said with his hands clutched backwards.
Due to repeated flash floods, Razak turned his apple orchard into a vegetable farm, most of which is barren, to minimise losses if floods sweep away his entire land someday.
“What is the need to extract river resources to feed the infrastructure boom in Kashmir if it is taking away the employment of poor people like me,” Razak questioned.
In a crackdown on illegal mining earlier this year in Pulwama district, 15 Kilometers north of Shopian, local authorities seized more than 25 large excavators (LNTs), dozens of JCBs, and hundreds of other vehicles engaged in illegal mining activities, while penalties and compounding charges have amounted to over Rs 2.7 crore.
A senior officer at the Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) Mining and Geology Department admitted, on conditions of anonymity, that illegal sand mining still takes place, mostly at night. It doesn't matter if there is a ban in place or not. This nexus works due to strong links between cartels and politicians, contractors, and administrative officials.
A political commentator in Srinagar believes that rivers and streams form the beauty of the region, and disregarding their sensitivity is a political choice.
“This water has been traditionally used for drinking and irrigation of paddy fields and apple orchards. In the last few years, these rivers and streams have been mined for construction material with a total disregard of any environmental concerns. A mining mafia is secretly working across the Valley,” he says on condition of anonymity.
“This is the looting of our natural resources, and it is happening without any check from the government, deliberately so or out of callousness,” he added.
He referred to Srinagar’s Semi Ring Road project that was allotted to Gurugram-based NKC Projects Pvt Ltd at an estimated cost of Rs 3,000 crores. This stretch spans 62 km. Its Detailed Project Report (DPR) has never been made public, leaving people unaware of the designated sites for sourcing riverbed materials.
Initially, the company mined the Shali Ganga in Budgam’s Panzan-Lalgam area, without any environmental clearance, before unloading material in nearby Gudsathoo, where it had set up a makeshift office and warehouse.
Following queries by independent activists, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) directed the company to stop mining in September 2022, after which it shifted operations to the ecologically fragile Sukhnag trout stream in Beerwah, again without leases, auctions, or clearances from State Environmental Impact Assessment Authority (SEIAA) or the Fisheries Department.
The political commentator questions how the NKC Projects Pvt Ltd can extract sand, muck, and gravel for the Ring Road project when the Mining Rules of 2016 and JKEIAA guidelines clearly state that any extracted material must be sold locally within a two-kilometre radius at a 50% discount.
The rules also mandate that mining be carried out manually by local labourers to ensure livelihoods. Yet at these sites, the extraction is done with heavy machinery, and the material is supplied to large stone-crushing units. From there, it is sold back to the local population at exorbitant rates.
As mining continues in various parts of the Valley, Razak struggles to sleep at night. “The sound of the river roaring at my farm disturbs me in my dreams. The Rambiara rivulet, which was once the source of irrigation for my orchard, has become a nightmare,” he says with a helpless sigh.
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