Many of the Garo people work as labourers on the Shomeshwari River.
The work is sand mining. It is hard work, unhealthy work not only for the labourers but also for the river, The sand extracted is needed for building purposes, for concrete. There is a huge demand, which means much money to be made, which means often the mining companies are run by unscrupulous people.
Not only local Garo people but migrant workers come to the camps to work.
There is no protection of the workers or of the environment.
An interesting place to photograph, but not a place that I enjoyed.

Every day the world’s population is growing. More and more people want decent housing to live in, offices and factories to work in, malls to shop in, and roads to connect it all. Economic development as it has historically been understood requires concrete and glass. It requires sand.

“The fundamental problem is the massive use of cement-based construction,” says Ritwick Dutta, a leading environmental lawyer. “That’s why the sand mafia has become so huge. Sand is everywhere.”