Alappuzha district is one of the major hubs of mineral sand in the state and major companies have been eyeing the coast for mining. The 40-km-long coast from Thottappally to Arattupuzha has rich deposits of mineral sand. IRE is already mining sand from many areas of the coast in the name of port development and other developmental activities. The smuggling of the mineral sand is also active in the coast of Purakkad, Thrikunnapuzha and Arattupuzha panchayats. IRE is removing sand from the Thottappally coast in the name of deepening the fishing harbour. Thousands of loads of sand were removed from the fishing harbour and it was transported to the company. However, the local people allege the private parties entrusted to shift the sand to IRE are smuggling it to other states. According to V Dinakaran, former MLA, the transporting contractor has smuggled large quantities of sand from Thottappally. This week, we had blocked two lorries and found they were transporting sand without proper documents. Now the government has decided to allot another licence to IRE to remove sand from Thottappally leading channel (pozhi) in the name of deepening it to mitigate flood in Kuttanad. It is also aimed at removing mineral sand from the area. We will not allow the move, because the unscientific mining is causing ecological imbalances in the area and affecting hundreds of fishermen families, Dinakaran said. The sea erosion is high in the coast due to the ecological imbalances. Many acres were taken by the sea and hundreds of people have become homeless in the past few years. The successive state governments are supporting the sand mining from the fragile coast. In 2012, the state government had constituted a corporation, Kerala State Mineral Development Corporation (KEMDEL) to explore the mining possibilities in the state. KEMDEL mooted a project in July 2012 to mine mineral sand from Alappuzha coast for presenting it in the Emerging Kerala Summit held in September 2012. KEMDEL decided to set up a Heavy Mineral Concentration Plant at Alappad, Arattupuzha and Kayamkulam coast in Alappuzha and Kollam districts. KEMDEL had invited applications from the industrialists to start a plant near Kayamkulam estuary. But the opposition from the public forced it to drop the plan.