These days, the Indus river flowing in Diamer district of Pakistan-occupied Gilgit-Baltistan is spewing not only water but also gold. The situation is such that earlier people could hardly extract one gram of gold in a day’s hard work, now with the help of machines many families are extracting 5 to 7 grams of gold daily.
According to a news from BBC Urdu, some tribes living in Diamer and Chilas areas have been extracting gold by sifting sand on the banks of Indus river for generations. This has been their traditional profession and only source of livelihood. But the picture has changed in the last two-three years. Now hundreds of machines are installed on the river banks, which filter as much sand in a few hours as people could not do in a whole day.
Those who own land benefit, others are left behind
According to a news from BBC Urdu, the game of installing machines is mostly in the hands of those people who have land on the river banks or investors from outside. Local people are either giving their land on rent or sharing in the profits. At the same time, those tribes who neither have land nor the ability to buy machines, are now reduced to daily wage labourers.
Journey from one gram to seven grams
According to local people, during the era of manual gold mining, a family would hardly get one gram of gold in a day. Now the same family is extracting 6-7 grams of gold from the machines. This is the reason why people are leaning towards machines even at the cost of environment and tradition.
increasing threat to the environment
According to a news from BBC Urdu, environmental experts are warning that extracting gold through machines is a threat to air, water and glaciers. Smoke from diesel generators and heavy machinery can melt glaciers rapidly. Due to dirty river water, fishes and aquatic life are being affected and the natural peace of the entire area is being destroyed due to noise and vibration.
Law incomplete, monitoring weak
At present there is no separate clear law for extracting gold from the river in Gilgit-Baltistan. This is seen under general mining rules. The administration says that the process of bringing illegal machines under legal ambit is underway, but the ground situation shows that control is still lax. Local tribes are demanding from the government that they should be given the opportunity to work in an environment-friendly manner, so that neither their age-old art is destroyed nor the nature is harmed.
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