Wednesday, March 18th 2026 was another important day for people of Beerwah, and me especially. An Expert Committee constituted by India’s top Green Court , the National Green Tribunal -NGT in response to my petition ( OA No 1211 / 2024 ) finally came to visit Sukhnag river in Beerwah tehsil of District Budgam. Before constituting this committee, the Principal Bench of NGT in October 2024 had constituted a Joint Committee of senior officials from Ministry of Environment Forest and Climate Change- MoEFCC, Central Pollution Control Board- CPCB, J&K Pollution Control Committee-JKPCC and Directorate of Fisheries Department J&K who paid visit to Sukhnag river on December 26th 2024. All the hydraulic excavators were taken out from Sukhnag river that day and hidden at multiple places of Sail and Kangripora villages. These machines were never found again.

After the joint committee submitted its report the tribunal imposed a blanket ban on riverbed mining in Sukhnag in its January 2025 order. Since the case is being listed for hearing in NGT on regular intervals, a 7 member committee was also constituted by Deputy Commissioner Budgam to look into damages caused to Sukhnag river due to illegal mining. The 7 member committee was headed by Sub Divisional Magistrate – SDM Beerwah. The other members included Divisional Forest Officer-DFO Pir Panjal forest division Budgam, Executive Engineer Flood Spill Channel Narbal, Assistant Director Fisheries Budgam , District Mining Officer -DMO Budgam, Block Development Officer Sukhnag and Beerwah blocks. Ironically some members of this committee had paved the way for illegal mining in Sukhnag and they were asked by DC to examine the amount of destruction caused to this stream. I wish an independent committee........

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