Sand worth at least Tk 1 crore is being extracted from the Padma River daily along the Kushtia-Pabna border, despite a High Court ban imposed in 2025, suspended leases and multiple enforcement drives by local authorities.
Where Illegal Activity is Clustered
The illegal trade is rampant at least in five places like Padma-Garai confluence, Beltala, Shilaidaha Ghat, Kalabagan and Char Tarapur. District officials and traders say the operations allegedly involve political actors, armed groups and locally influential figures who operate largely unchallenged.
Night Operations Under Arms
Most extraction takes place after dark under armed guard, and villagers near the river are reported to act as lookouts, warning operators when outsiders or law enforcement come close. Bulk carriers take sand, which is transported to riverside depots locally known as tariamahals and then trucked out all over the country.
Illegal Operators Push Out Legal Leaseholders
In a letter in November, the Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority asked the Kushtia, Pabna and Natore district administrations to crack down on the illegal trade. It noted that at the time, Molla Traders had the only legal lease in the region and was the only authorised operator, while other groups continued to extract sand illegally, even after their leases expired, denying the government significant revenue.
A Pattern That Precedes This Ban
This is not a new issue. The court injunctions against sand leasing in the Padma and Jamuna river fields are over a decade old. But illegal sand lifting continues, irrespective of seasons, court orders and drives by the administration, as the construction sector’s insatiable demand for sand across the country fuels the illicit trade.
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The Human and Environmental Toll
Officials from the Bangladesh Water Development Board warn that unregulated extraction is undermining the Padma’s protective embankments, putting them at risk of major erosion and flooding. Families in riverside unions have lost homesteads and farmland to the river over the years, and that cost is continuing to mount as the scale of the illegal trade is outpacing enforcement efforts.
Summary: A High Court ban, suspended leases and repeated enforcement drives have not been able to stop one of Bangladesh’s most persistent environmental crimes. Politically connected syndicates are still extracting illegal sand along the Kushtia-Pabna border of the Padma virtually unabated, costing the state dearly in lost revenue and the destruction of riverbanks.
