Economic Incentives for the Conservation of Bharathapuzha River: Focus on Sand Mining

Rivers in Kerala are assailed by pollution, sedimentation, sand mining, and constriction of flows. The indiscriminate and unscientific sand mining, even in the midst of many regulatory and protective measures for their conservation, have made the condition of these rivers pathetic. Bharathapuzha basin is the largest among all the 44 river basins of Kerala and the second longest river of the State. The drying up of Bharathapuzha River has become a matter of grave concern to the scientists and environmentalists. This paper tries to establish that implementing economic incentives is a possible method which can be adopted in the conservation practices of Bharathapuzha River.