What is sand used for?
Sand seems infinite- covering beaches, rivers, deltas, all around the world. But sand is also used to make glass, electronics and most immensely used in construction. As cities grow larger, infrastructure moves higher, the demand for sand increases. Sand is in so much demand today that stealing sand has become an attractive business model.
Sand has been used by ancient and modern civilizations. Cities have been built, ruined, rebuilt-thinking that sand is abundant. But sand too is finite.
We are running out of Sand!
The world uses 40 billion tons of sand each year! The number is growing fast and the world is running out of sand. It is the river and beach sand that is running out. Desert sand is not of much use as it is lighter, cannot stick and gets eroded by wind. When the rivers and beaches are being emptied of their major source of sand, it can cause huge environmental damage.
A Sandy Affair!
Many people have been killed over the sand war. In India alone many government officials and policemen have been killed by sand mafias.