New Delhi, July 23 -- The crackdown on illegal sand mining in the National Chambal Sanctuary is facing "practical constraints", a report by the Central Empowered Committee (CEC) in the Supreme Court said as the expert body assisting the court on environmental matters sought immediate orders for handing over revenue land falling within the sanctuary area to the state forest department. The CEC, in its report filed early this week, said that the sanctuary spread across Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh have shown significant progress in curbing illegal sand mining by improving enforcement action. However, these measures are possible as the matter is currently under court monitoring. In the long run, such measures need to be institutionalised, for which the forest officials and guards, serving as the first line of defence, need to be empowered. The report of the CEC said, "A substantial portion of the National Chambal Sanctuary (NCS) comprises revenue and private land rather than notified forest land. This has resulted in practical constraints in the exercise of certain enforcement powers available under the Indian Forest Act, 1927." In the interaction with forest officials, CEC was informed that since a major chunk of the sanctuary land is not a notified forest, the statutory power of seizure under Section 52 of the 1927 Act is not available in respect of such areas. This is proving to be a major obstacle in effective enforcement against illegal sand mining, they said. A bench of justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta reserved orders on the CEC report and posted the matter for August 4. It said, "Time has come that these lands are converted into forest land." The report showed that the share of revenue land in the demarcated sanctuary area is 424 out of 435 sq km in Madhya Pradesh, 437 out of 635 sq kms in Rajasthan, and 676 out of 922 sq kms in Uttar Pradesh....