Sand is a lucrative business in India

[This article is taken from special issue ^no. 108 of Courrier international, The Atlas of Resources, on sale since July 23, 2025.]

During the day, the young men lounge around. They only go out after midnight to climb onto their tractors and head for the riverbanks , reports The Print. “The quiet night is interrupted by the 'khat khat khat' of farm machinery and excavators. The machines dig to extract sand from the Sone River in Bhagwan Bigha, a town of 1,200 people in northeastern India's Bihar state, the poorest in the country.

As workers dig with shovels, or even bare hands, to load the tractors, “nearby, motorcycles stand ready to escort the loaded vehicles,” the Indian online media outlet describes. “Night after night, while the rest of Bihar sleeps, they steal.” Under cover of darkness, these men load at least 150 tractors with the precious sand. Each machine makes three trips, carrying at least four tons of sand per trip.

With every load, precious resources escape the Bihar government. On the black market, sand sells for between 1,500 and 2,000 rupees (between 15 and 20 euros) per tractor, or barely 300 rupees (3 euros) per ton, well below the legal price of 3,000 to 4,000 rupees (30 to 40 euros). In total, the money from sand, whether legal or illegal, is worth billions.

The social and environmental consequences of this trafficking are disastrous. Extracting sand from riverbeds can lower the water table, affecting water availability for agriculture and drinking. In rural Bihar, “rivers have dried up, children have drowned in the holes dug, and groundwater levels have dropped significantly,” The Print reports.

And the effects of this underground economy are felt far beyond the villages. In the state capital, Patna, tractors and trucks loaded with sand create endless traffic jams. “It's all happening under the government's nose,” said Rakesh Kumar, a driver interviewed by the news site. At the top of the black market are local elected officials, who collaborate with their relatives to grease the wheels of the operation.

A powerful group of people is behind large-scale illegal sand mining, claimed a 2022 article by Third Pole . The side effects are a significant loss of revenue for public finances and overexploitation of the resource. “It is a big challenge to stop illegal sand mining because the sand mafia has money and muscle,” a Bihar state official told the news website. And the trade is fueled by the rampant construction of buildings and infrastructure in the country.

Riverbeds have become hotbeds of crime and impunity, where even the police fear to venture. Those who attempt to intercept trucks risk their lives. In May and June 2024, three police officers were killed in separate incidents related to illegal sand mining.

Journalists covering illegal sand mining and construction in the country are also in the crosshairs of mafias. In January 2025, the body of 32-year-old Mukesh Chandrakar was found in a septic tank in the state of Chhattisgarh, the BBC reports . The journalist had reported extensively on corruption in public construction projects. Shubham Mani Tripathi, another Indian journalist covering the “sand mafia,” was shot dead in 2020 while riding his motorcycle home , Voices of America reports.

Arrests have been made and crackdowns have been implemented, but so far without much effect. This observation does not seem to discourage Chandrashekhar Bawankule, the finance minister of Maharashtra. On May 29, 2025, he asked officials in this central-western state not to give in to pressure and not to engage in illegal activities, The Print reported in an article published that day .

“Some people are using my name in sand-related matters. But I have given clear instructions to officials: even if someone calls you pretending to be me, you must refuse to engage in illegal acts,” said the minister, who then clarified that his “government is committed to resolving all major sand-related issues within the next three years.”