Are we destroying our ECOSYSTEM?
Nasser Lalljee

DIVING 25 feet underwater may be your idea of a good time but these people do it on a daily basis for a living! Encompassing an area of about 30-km that borders the Chenna Creek and that spreads from Versova on Ghodbunder Road, just before the Vasai Bridge, to kaler Bridge along the Bhiwandi Vada Road. The area covers about 25 villages each having about 5,000 people. They have been earning their livelihood by dredging out sand from the Chenna Creek for the last 75 years. Diving under water to a depth of almost 25 feet in some areas, they gather sand in a basket before resurfacing. The operation takes about a minute. The basket, filled with sand, is then pulled up like a bucket from the well. Only manual labour, from small diesel enging operated boats, is allowed. Meals are taken on board between trips to the shore, where they dump the sand, and go back to mid creek for more diving. They operate almost eighty boats for about 20 days a month, emptying about 10,000 tonnes of sand from the creek. The sand is brought ashore and taken by trucks to be sold to builders by dealers. A percentage of the revenue received by boat owners has to be given to the government by way of rate per truck over the years, they have had to dive deeper into the waters – earlier they dived just five feet, today they have to dive as deep as 25 feet.