BAGLUNG: Despite a legal provision prohibiting the extraction of riverbed materials during the monsoon season, large-scale illegal sand mining is underway in the Kaligandaki River along the Baglung and Parbat sections.
The law bans extraction from June to August 31, yet over a dozen locations on both sides of the river are witnessing unchecked exploitation.
Crusher operators have been conducting extractions even at midnight to avoid detection by locals. On Saturday night at around 9 pm, an excavator was seen scooping sand from the riverbed in the Bhatikhola area of Sahasradhara, while five tipper trucks transported the material. Similar activity has been observed in multiple locations, where extracted sand is being stockpiled for winter sales at inflated prices.
According to RK Adipta Giri, coordinator of the Save Kaligandaki Campaign, active mining is taking place in Baglung Municipality–10’s Dablyang, Bhatikhola, and Ward 13’s Kalakhola areas, among others. Giri stressed the need for strict enforcement by local governments, warning that excessive extraction threatens the sacred Shaligram stones for which the river is revered.
The Parbat stretch of the river is seeing the most intense mining, while Baglung’s Sahasradhara, Khaniyaghat, and Dablyang areas remain hotspots. Giri accused local governments, the administration, and the district coordination committee of passing the blame instead of taking action.
Although national guidelines issued in 2020 require that stone, gravel, and sand extraction occur at least 500 meters from a riverbank, much of the ongoing mining is happening directly from the river’s midstream. “Mining is impossible without police complicity,” Giri claimed, pointing out that police checkpoints exist near Mal Dhunga while mining continues nearby.
He warned that erosion in Kalakhola has already begun due to over-extraction, threatening nearby homes and depriving local governments of revenue. Giri called for Kaligandaki’s inclusion in a protected heritage list to safeguard its ecological and cultural significance, comparing its destruction to the loss of human civilization itself.
Baglung District Police Chief SP Tilak Bharti acknowledged the problem, saying that although police are deployed, extraction has not been stopped due to factors such as local governments’ inability to award contracts and concerns over lost revenue. He added that a new strategy is being prepared to deploy plainclothes officers to curb illegal mining.
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