New Delhi, July 21 -- The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has directed all States and Union Territories to formulate a regulatory mechanism, in line with the framework prepared by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) and the Expert Appraisal Committee (EAC), to regulate the removal of flood-deposited sand from agricultural fields and prevent illegal sand mining.

A bench comprising NGT Chairperson Justice Prakash Shrivastava and Expert Member Dr. Afroz Ahmad passed the directions while hearing a batch of petitions concerning commercial mining allegedly being carried out under the guise of removing sand deposits from private agricultural land after the monsoon.

The Tribunal directed all States and Union Territori...