During one of the field investigations, I visited the Mylavaram Dam site, it is on the Penna River in peninsular India. There were two political factions, they often killed each other for supremacy, for the exploitation of natural resources and creating wealth. Illegal sand mining from the Penna River bed was one such activity in the area.

During the visit, I saw that there were many pits on the river bed, due to sand mining. At many places, the rocky river bed was exposed. In the absence of the sand, there is a reduction in the subsurface flow of water and recharging of the local aquifers was reduced. The ecological services rendered by the sand are many and important in a semi-arid area.

Due to increased gradient from sand mining, the boulders of the bedrock at the foot of the dam were detached and pushed further downward. That posed a serious threat to the foundation of the dam itself. The dam was found weak with the water sprinkling and oozing from a few cracks in the dam wall.

These local political factions were more worried about their earning even at the cost of depletion of the natural resources - a threat to the local peoples’ lives, livelihoods and the local environment.

Based on the observations made by me, a public interest litigation was filed in the High Court. An order from the court was issued to stop the illegal unscientific sand mining from the Penna river bed - downstream of the dam.

Prof. K. Purushotham Reddy and I represented in another case on sand mining at the Supreme court of India. This was to prevent the over-exploitation of the sand from the Krishna River bed, causing environmental impacts. This case was related to the Amaravathi town in Guntur district, Andhra Pradesh state, India, where the court sent a note of caution, about the adverse impact of underwater sand mining. S. S. Niranjan Reddy our advocate, argued before the court, that sand quarrying should not be allowed in the absence of an Environmental Impact Assessment.

In this case, Chief Justice Mr Lokur, said that ‘Can we permit the degradation of the environment or the exploitation of the natural resources to such an extent where the concept of sustainable development becomes an impossibility? Should our future generations pay for our inaction? It is essential to ensure that there is no rampant or unregulated exploitation of natural resources.’

As a means to bring order, a legal intervention was part of the environmental activism to tackle the growing environmental concerns.