MANGALURU: Pavoor Uliya island on the outskirts of Mangaluru is slowly “disappearing” because of rampant illegal sand mining. Around 50 families are now living in fear there.
Under the slogan, “Save island, protect people’s life”, members of Catholic Sabha of Mangaluru and a delegation from like-minded organisations visited the island on Monday.
Fr Manohar D’souza, parish priest of Infant Jesus Church, said, “Those involved in illegal sand mining must be booked for murder. Our pleas to the district administration and departments concerned did not receive any positive response.”
Gilbert D’souza, a resident of Pavoor Uliya, said people of the island recently chased away those extracting sand. But the sand mafia has been threatening them since then. “The 100-acre island has shrunk significantly because of illegal sand mining. When AB Ibrahim was deputy commissioner of Dakshina Kannada, illegal sand mining was stopped at Valachil, Pavoor, Gadigadde and behind Sahyadri College. The sand mafia is back now with hundreds of workers extracting and transporting sand from the island. We need a permanent solution to this problem,” he said.
Reporters, who were taken to Pavoor Uliya, saw some workers extracting sand there. There were mounds of sand dumped along the banks of the island to be shipped elsewhere.
Activist Muneer Katipalla, who was part of the delegation, sought a permanent solution to illegal sand mining at Pavoor Uliya.