MANGALURU: About 12 sand miners escaped from the clutches of a team led by the Mangaluru tahsildar cracking down on illegal sand mining in the district by jumping into the river and swimming across on the city’s outskirts on Saturday night.
Tahsildar Guruprasad told Express that the miners were on boats when the team raided them. “They jumped into the water and swam across, while four drivers (of the sand lorries) took to their feet and escaped,” he said.
Late night on Saturday, the taluk tahsildar with his team of 11 members visited Adyar Katte at Adyar Padav, a little away from Mangaluru, based on a tip-off. There they saw men busy drawing sand from the river bed illegally. The team that chased the offenders was outdone by the latter in the dead of the night. However, they managed to seize three boats, four JCBs, seven tippers and a scooter. As many as 10 loads of sand were seized from the miners, said Guruprasad.
The value of the seized items is yet to be estimated. Deputy Commissioner S Sasikanth Senthil confirmed the raid on illegal sand mining activity. The district has a history of being plagued by illegal sand miners, transporters and hoarders. At least 53 complaints about illegal sand activity this year were received at the police station and most were handed over to the mines and geology department for further action.