Indian College Kids, a Sand Mafia Path, a River of Death

The Indian college kids on break would never have reached that alluring spot on the Beas River without a lane carved by trucks and tractors operated by a network of criminals known as the sand mafia. But there it was. So they filed from their tour bus parked on the rural highway above and headed down the steep-cut banks.

It was Sunday, June 8, a warm day in the Himalayan foothills near Thalout, a dot on the map in the north Indian state of Himachal Pradesh.