A truck driver resisted eco-police officers and damaged their vehicle during a raid on illegal sand and gravel extraction in the Ishtikhon district of Samarkand province, the National Committee for Ecology and Climate Change reported.
Officers, working with internal affairs officers, prosecutors and district administration staff, found a sand and gravel mixture being extracted by excavator from the bed of the Okdarya River, which flows through the Kutarma neighborhood, and loaded onto a truck, the committee said. The violation was halted.
The truck driver refused to comply with lawful demands and put up fierce resistance, the committee said. He dumped the load, allowing the excavator operator to flee the scene.
The driver also endangered the officers’ lives and damaged one officer’s car with his truck, it said.
Relevant documents have been drawn up, and the materials will be sent to law enforcement agencies for a legal assessment and appropriate action, the committee said. The amount of damage to nature will be determined.
The source gives no date for the incident.
Background: Earlier, the committee reported that illegal sand and gravel extraction in the Gijduvan district of Bukhara province had caused 8.9 billion soums in damage to nature. In Kashkadarya province’s Yakkabag district, 500 tonnes of coal were found to have been illegally mined at a deposit. To clear a road to the mine, 33 trees and nearly 3,000 bushes were uprooted.
