A recent Karnataka High Court order is not just a simple legal comment. It is like a post-mortem report on the system of governance. The court has clearly admitted that the state has lost all control over illegal sand mining. The law is exhausted. The administration has surrendered. Politics has shut its eyes.

When a constitutional court has to write that if the state's own Home Minister feels helpless to act against the illegal sand mining mafia, then no miracle can be expected from the state machinery, it should be understood that agreements, not the state, are now running the show.

Read in Hindi: यमुना, चंबल से कावेरी तक…, रेत माफिया से हार गई है सरकार...

Home Minister G Parameshwar's statement in the assembly is even more frightening. He admits that illegal sand mining is a huge racket. So huge that he can neither name names nor give explanations. Because many influential people are involved. This means the crime is so powerful that even shame is on the side of power.

Sand is called a ‘minor mineral’ in legal language. But this term itself is deceptive. The plunder of sand is no minor crime. It is environmental genocide, an economic crime, and in many places, directly a deadly business. Over 700 million tonnes of sand are used in India every year. A large part of this is extracted from rivers.

Whether it's Krishna, Kaveri, and Tungabhadra in the south or Yamuna and Chambal in the north, the story is the same everywhere. Machines descend under the cover of darkness. Trucks run in broad daylight. And, in between lives, a frightened society. Rivers are seen not as living systems, but as open mines. Sand is being extracted not according to the river's capacity, but according to builders' hunger. The result is clear. The river's womb is being emptied. Banks are collapsing. Groundwater is receding.

In Agra, the water level is falling by an average of one and a half meters every year. Wells are drying up. Fields are thirsty. Crops are being destroyed. Bridges and roads have become hollow from the inside, which suddenly collapse and are then called ‘accidents’. While this is not an accident, but a pre-planned crime.

Illegal mining in the Yamuna has increased the river's depth, multiplying the risk of floods. Water quality has fallen. Silt and pollution have increased. Groundwater recharge is badly affected.

In Agra, the Yamuna flows past the Taj Mahal as if bowing its head in shame. Sand mining has stopped the river's heartbeat. There is less water. The flow is broken. Pollution is increasing. Green stains are appearing on the Taj Mahal's marble. Insects called Goldichironomus are thriving, which leave a green slime. The wooden foundations are rotting.

Environmentalists clearly say the Yamuna is no longer a river. For most of the year, it has become a dry sewage canal, in which whatever little flows is the waste from Delhi and upstream cities. This is not just an environmental crisis. It is a direct attack on our heritage. Yet the trucks don't stop, because the shadow of power stands behind them.

Environmentalist Dr Devashish Bhattacharya says, "The condition of the Chambal is even more shameful. On paper, it is a national sanctuary. In reality, it is the mafia's estate. Hundreds of trucks of sand are openly extracted every day from Morena and Dholpur. Chambal is home to gharials, rare turtles, and endangered birds like the Indian skimmer. Sand removal buries their eggs. Nests are destroyed. Breeding areas are being finished. An entire species is on the brink of becoming history."

According to public commentator Prof Paras Nath Choudhary, "There is no one to question, because those who question are afraid. This fear did not arise without reason. In this business, there are lathis, bullets, and limitless black money. Policemen have been run over by trucks. Journalists have been beaten. Activists have been threatened. When legislators openly say they can do nothing, what chance does a common person have?"

The sand mafia doesn't just mine. It funds elections. It buys officials. It places its people in every party. Therefore, this is not the business of any one party, but a cross-party business. Governments change, the mafia does not.

There is no lack of laws. There are NGT orders. There are strict comments from the High Courts and the Supreme Court. There are guidelines for sustainable sand mining. There is a lack of only one thing: political will.

Governments often give the excuse of desilting and dredging. While the difference is clear. Desilting is maintenance, a limited and controlled process. Illegal mining is blind plunder. Where the river is not saved, but squeezed dry. If this continues, the truth will become even clearer. The sand mafia is more powerful than the state. This is not a metaphor; it is a bitter truth.

Rivers don't just give water. They give civilisation. They give agriculture. They give life. A society that cannot save its rivers digs its own future's grave. History does not forgive such an era. When the rivers dry up, even the stolen sand will not be able to cover this shame.