Srinagar, May 18 (IANS): Four persons employed by a Hyderabad-based company, involved in the construction of the all weather Zojila Tunnel, were arrested on Tuesday in J&K's Ganderbal district for illegal mining in the local Sindh stream thereby violating the orders of the J&K High Court.

The four employed with infrastructure firm 'Megha Engineering Infrastructure' were caught by a team of Irrigation and Flood Control Department while they were extracting sand and boulders from the Sindh stream in Nigrad area of the north Kashmir district.

"We have also seized four dumpers and one L&T earth moving machine those were being used to extract and ferry the illegally extracted sand and boulders from the Sindh stream," an official of the flood and irrigation department said.

The official said the four persons caught during illegal extraction have been handed over to the police for further action under the law.

Megha Engineering Infrastructure was allotted the construction of the all weather Zojila Tunnel which will connect the Ladadh UT with J&K.

It must be mentioned that there are standing orders of the J&K High Court banning all extractions from the Sindh stream.

The stream is the ecological habitat of the trout fish species whose survival is threatened by sand and boulder extraction from the stream.