'Forest Guard Run Over In Chambal Sanctuary While Attempting To Stop Tractor Carrying Sand': Amicus Tells Supreme Court

An urgent mentioning was made today before the Supreme Court regarding the alleged murder of a forest guard in Madhya Pradesh's National Chambal Sanctuary region when he attempted to stop a tractor carrying illegally mined sand.

A bench of Justice Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta took note of the incident, stated to have taken place yesterday, based on an application filed by the Amicus Curiae in the suo motu case taken up over illegal sand mining in the region. The matter will be heard next week.

As per reports, forest guard-Harkesh Gurjar, 33, attempted to stop the tractor during a patrol, but he was run over by the vehicle and died on the spot.

During the hearing, Justice Mehta noted that there have been some "very grave" incidents in the region. The bench asked the counsel who mentioned the matter, AoR Rupali Samuel (one of the Amicus), to file an affidavit bringing on record details of other incidents and serve advance notice on the counsel for Madhya Pradesh.

The Supreme Court, in a previous hearing, had expressed concerns about illegal sand mining in the region, and had commented that preventive detention law must be applied against the sand mafia. The Court had also stayed the Rajasthan Government's notification excluding certain regions from the sanctuary.

Case Title: IN RE: ILLEGAL SAND MINING IN THE NATIONAL CHAMBAL SANCTUARY AND THREAT TO ENDANGERED AQUATIC WILDLIFE Versus, SMW(C) No. 2/2026