Madhya Pradesh Officer Trying To Stop Illegal Sand Mining Run Over By Tractor

A forest guard was crushed to death by a speeding tractor while attempting to stop illegal sand mining from the Chambal River in Madhya Pradesh's Morena on Wednesday - exposing the violent impunity with which illegal miners operate in the region.

The victim, Harikesh Gurjar, was part of a patrol team from the Ambah Forest Range that had been on alert since the previous night to curb illegal mining activities in the prohibited zone of the National Chambal Gharial Sanctuary. Acting on intelligence inputs, the team set up interception points along National Highway 552 near Rathol ka Pura and Ranpur.

What followed was swift, brutal, and calculated.

A tractor-trolley loaded with illegally mined sand appeared on the highway. As the Forest Department team moved to stop it, Harikesh Gurjar stepped forward. In a chilling act of defiance, the driver accelerated and ran him over before fleeing the scene with the vehicle.

Colleagues rushed Gurjar to the District Hospital in a police vehicle, but doctors declared him dead after a preliminary medical examination. 

His body has been sent for a post-mortem.

Police have registered a criminal case against the unidentified driver and vehicle, with multiple agencies now working to track down the accused. Officials from the district administration, police, and Forest Department rushed to the spot soon after the incident.

A crucial breakthrough may lie in CCTV footage from a petrol pump on the Morena-bound route. The tractor-trolley in question was spotted shortly after crossing Ranpur. The footage now widely circulating shows the vehicle arriving at high speed, the driver visibly frantic, and leaving just as quickly. Investigators believe this is the same vehicle used in the killing.

BJP State President Hemant Khandelwal, who was in Morena on a one-day visit, termed the incident "tragic and condemnable," adding that he would raise the issue with the Chief Minister to prevent such occurrences in the future.

But for many in Morena, this is not an isolated incident. It is a pattern.

The Chambal belt has long been a battleground between law enforcement and illegal sand miners. And time and again, the method of retaliation has remained chillingly consistent.

In 2025, during a late-night crackdown in Bhind's Lahar, a tractor-trolley loaded with illegal sand rammed into the official vehicle of SDM Vijay Yadav. The vehicle was severely damaged, and the officer narrowly escaped death. Just weeks earlier, on January 30, 2025, Bhind Collector Sanjeev Srivastava was similarly targeted by the sand mafia in the Umri police station area.

On March 8, 2012, IPS officer Narendra Kumar was run over in Banmore while trying to stop a tractor carrying illegally mined stone. The case had sparked national outrage. In 2018, a deputy forest ranger was crushed to death in Morena under similar circumstances while trying to intercept a sand-laden tractor.

In 2016, another forest guard in the Gwalior region was killed when illegal miners ran over him as he tried to stop their vehicle.
In 2015, a police constable met the same fate. In 2013, officials were attacked.

In the Chambal region, the stakes are even higher. The area is ecologically sensitive, home to endangered species like the gharial. Yet illegal mining continues unabated, often in direct defiance of court orders and environmental regulations.