After five-yr mining ban, greenery returns around Neugal river

Ravinder Sood

PALAMPUR, September 30

With all types of mining activities banned in the part of Neugal river between Bundla and Alampur, greenery is returning to the banks of the river. This stretch of the Neugal has emerged as an example of environmental protection for the state.

Over the past two decades, the river was recklessly ravaged by the mining mafia and both its banks were left bald and scarred. But with the mining ban imposed by the National Green Tribunal (NGT) in 2016 and subsequent cognizance taken by the Himachal Pradesh High Court on a report published in these columns, illegal mining has come to an end in the 10km stretch between Bundla and Paror.

With the efforts of the then Kangra SP Sanjiv Gandhi and DSP Vikas Dhiman, who played a significant role in the implementation of the High Court orders, the dust has settled and the machines which plundered the earth have fallen silent.

In the past five years, most parts of the river banks between Bundla and Paror have turned green and the land is slowly being reclaimed by the state agencies. Also, wild animals, including barking deer, peacocks, jackals and leopards, can also be seen in the forests adjoining the Neugal.

Even as only 500 acres in the river were allotted for mining, the mafia carried out its activities almost in the entire river, in connivance with the police and the mining departments.

Although the area was being mined for more than 30 years, most of the damage to the environment was caused in the past 10 years, when mining activity increased manifolds under political protection, that too with the help of heavy equipment like JCB machines and earth movers.

Caption: A thick cover of vegetation at the Neugal river banks after the ban on mining. Photo: Ravinder Sood