Sand being the most used material in construction activities is becoming scarcer day by day. River sand mining is a big business in coastal areas of India . This article discusses the problem of illegal sand mining in Dakshina Kannada district , Karnataka State , India and the method adopted to tackle such activities through the use of GPS . Due to environmental hazards created by uncontrolled sand mining in the neighboring Kerala State, the high court of Kerala had banned sand mining in the state. This came as a severe blow to construction activities in the state. Thereafter many alternatives were chalked out.