Nuh police rope in students in fight against illegal mining

Planning to make students a part of its ongoing war against mining, the Nuh police have started a special initiative to sensitise children about the need of conservation of the Aravallis.

The police plan to organise regular tours of children to the hills and organise special sessions for them with local zoology and botany teachers and forest officials. They will be made aware of flora and fauna and taken to the sites damaged by mining, and those reclaimed by nature following a year of strict implementation of the ban. The department will ensure that a majority of participants are from over 20 villages in the Aravalli foothills that have normalised mining.

“We need to catch them young to curtail any ‘crime’ against the Aravallis. A majority of these children, despite living in close association with the Aravallis, have grown in environs normalising crime against the hills. Most families have conventionally been involved in mining, which makes it an acceptable act for them. We want to make them aware of the impact of the menace and use them to initiate a change,” said Nuh SP Narendra Bijarnia.

Among the sites chosen for the visit will be Pachgaon, a hotspot of illegal mining in the past and where a DSP was shot dead by the mining mafia.

The police are also organising Aravalli awareness trips for schoolchildren.

Meanwhile, in a bid to curtail illegal mining on the border, special vigilance teams have been activated and the police have launched raids to nab notorious miners, who, after a crackdown in Haryana, have started operating from Rajasthan. “Special checkpoints have been erected. We have got in touch with mining and forest officials to man the ways between the two states passing through the forest,” the SP added.