Sunil is a young civil servant and has a reputation for his competence, integrity, dedication and relentness pursuit of difficult and onerous jobs. Considering his profile, he was picked up by his bosses to handle a very challenging and sensitive assignment. He was posted in a tribal dominated district notorious for illegal sand mining. Excavating sand from river belt and transporting through trucks and selling them in black market was rampant. This illegal sand mining mafia was operating with the support of local functionaries and tribal musclemen who in turn were bribing selected poor tribals and had kept the tribals under fear and intimidation.
Sunil being a sharp and energetic officer immediately grasped the ground realities and the modus operandi followed by the mafia through their devious and dubious mechanism. On making inquiries, he gathered that some of their own office employees are in hand and glove with them and have developed close unholy nexus. Sunil initiated stringent action against them and started conducting raids on their illegal operations of movement of trucks filled with sand. The mafia got rattled as not many officers in the past had taken such strong steps against the mafia. Some of the office employees who were allegedly close to mafia informed them that the officer is determined to clean up the mafia’s illegal sand mining operations in that district and may cause them irrepairable damage.
The mafia turned hostile and launched counter-offensive. The tribal musclemen and mafia started threatening him with dire consequences. His family (wife and old mother) were stalked and were under virtual surveillance and thus causing mental torture, agony and stress to all of them. The matter assumed serious proportions when a muscleman came to his office and threatened him to stop raids, etc., otherwise, his fate will not be different than some of his predecessors (ten years back one officer was killed by the mafia).
(a) Identify the different options available to Sunil in attending to this situation. (b) Critically evaluate each of the options listed by you. (c) Which of the above, do you think, would be the most appropriate for Sunil to adopt and why?
Approach · directive: “identify / critically evaluate / which”
What it asks · (a) List Sunil's options; (b) evaluate each critically; (c) choose the most appropriate and justify it.
It asks 3 things — answer each
- (a) Identify the options available to Sunil in this situation
- (b) Critically evaluate each option
- (c) Choose the most appropriate option for Sunil and justify it
Open with · Duty to the law and the tribals versus the safety of one's family: Aristotle's courage, the mean between cowardice and rashness, is Sunil's test.
Cover
- Opening: duty to the law and the tribals versus family safety; Aristotle's courage as the mean between cowardice and rashness.
- Stakeholders and dilemmas: Sunil and his family, tribals, colluding staff, the mafia, superiors and the river; duty versus safety, integrity versus a leaking office.
- (a)-(b) Options in a table: go slow or seek transfer, continue raids alone, or persist with institutional backing; retreat is cowardice, lone raids rashness.
- (c) Course: family protection, an FIR and written reports; colluding staff moved; MoEFCC sand-mining guidelines (GPS/RFID tracking of sand vehicles); Gujarat's Trinetra drones.
- (c) Tribals: PESA's mandatory gram sabha recommendation before minor-mineral leases, witness protection, livelihoods and affordable legal sand.
- Long-term: transparent auctions, published lease maps, rotation on mining desks, a whistle-blower channel and protection for officers who act.
Close with · A mafia thrives on isolated officers; courage backed by records, technology and the community outlasts courage alone.
Add value (verified)
- In a Scheduled Area, PESA (1996) makes the recommendation of the gram sabha or the panchayat at the appropriate level mandatory before any prospecting licence or mining lease for minor minerals such as sand, which gives the tribal community a legal lever against the mafia.The Provisions of the Panchayats (Extension to the Scheduled Areas) Act, 1996, section 4(k), Ministry of Tribal Affairs ↗“the recommendations of the Gram Sabha or the Panchayats at the appropriate level shall be made mandatory prior to grant of prospecting licence or mining lease for minor minerals in the Scheduled Areas”
- Aristotle: courage is the mean regarding fear and confidence; the man who exceeds in confidence is rash, and he who exceeds in fear is a coward.Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, Book II (trans. W. D. Ross) — The Internet Classics Archive, MIT ↗“With regard to feelings of fear and confidence courage is the mean; of the people who exceed, he who exceeds in fearlessness has no name (many of the states have no name), while the man who exceeds in confidence is rash, and he who exceeds in fear and falls short in confidence is a coward.”
- MoEFCC sand-mining guidelines: there is a need for strict surveillance, particularly at night, and Gujarat's 'Trinetra' programme uses night-vision drones for night surveillance to control illegal mining incidents.Enforcement & Monitoring Guidelines for Sand Mining, Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, January 2020 ↗“The Taskforce shall be headed by officer not less than ADM rank and quarterly outcome shall be submitted to District administration. In addition to the above, there is a need for strict surveillance, particularly at night. The State of Gujarat has already initiated a program called ‘Trinetra’ for night surveillance by using night-vision drones to control illegal mining incidents.”
- MoEFCC sand-mining guidelines: the route of the vehicle (carrying sand) from source to destination is to be tracked through the system using checkpoints, RFID tags and GPS.Enforcement & Monitoring Guidelines for Sand Mining, Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, January 2020 ↗“vii. The route of the vehicle from source to destination shall be tracked through the system using checkpoints, Radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags, and Global Positioning System (GPS) tracking.”
Question: UPSC's CS (Main) 2021, GS Paper IV — paper ↗. Approach: Minimalist IAS, checked 1 Oct 2026 (how we verify) — UPSC publishes no model answers. ·
Model answer· 318words · Minimalist IAS
Duty to the law and the tribals versus the safety of one's family: Aristotle placed courage as the mean between cowardice and rashness, and that is exactly Sunil's test before a mafia that has killed before.
Stakeholders and ethical issues
- Stakeholders: Sunil and his family; intimidated tribals; colluding staff; the mafia; police and superiors; the river and the exchequer.
- Dilemmas: duty versus family safety; integrity versus a leaking office; the tribals' fear versus their rights; the river's ecology versus illegal profit.
(a) Options available, and (b) their critical evaluation
| Option | Merits | Demerits |
|---|---|---|
| Go slow or seek transfer | Family safe | Rewards intimidation; abandons tribals |
| Continue raids alone | Upholds the law | Leaks survive; risks a predecessor's fate |
| Persist with institutional backing | Lawful, durable, shares the risk | Slower; needs superiors' support |
- Critically: retreat is cowardice and lone raids are rashness; only the third is courage in Aristotle's sense, and it works only if the state backs him.
(c) The most appropriate course, and why
- Immediately: police protection for his family, an FIR for criminal intimidation and every threat reported in writing, so that the state, not Sunil alone, owns the risk.
- Clean the office: move colluding staff from sensitive seats and start proceedings.
- Systems over personal raids: MoEFCC's sand-mining guidelines call for strict surveillance, particularly at night, and GPS, RFID and checkpoint tracking of sand vehicles; Gujarat's Trinetra uses night-vision drones against illegal mining.
- Bring tribals in: in a Scheduled Area, PESA (1996) makes the recommendation of the gram sabha or the appropriate-level panchayat mandatory before minor-mineral leases; add witness protection, livelihoods and affordable legal sand.
- Why: lawful persistence without rashness, family safety treated as legitimate, and the nexus attacked at its roots.
Long-term fix
- Transparent auctions, published lease maps, rotation on mining desks, a whistle-blower channel and visible protection for officers who act.
A mafia thrives on isolated officers; courage backed by records, technology and the community outlasts courage alone.
Prepared by Minimalist IAS to the answer standard of Shivam Singh (mentor, 7 years) · facts checked against official sources (how we verify) · updated 1 Oct 2026. UPSC publishes no model answers: compare your structure and coverage with this, then write your own.
