Expanding human requirements and economic developments impose immense pressure on our resource base and environmental setting. The situation is rather alarming in Kerala, a coastal state with low percapita land and resource availability. Lack of adequate studies on the resource extraction and its impact on environment is a major setback in proper planning and developments in the area. Here we report the environmental pressures resulted from the extraction of building and filling materials from the Muvattupuzha river basin located in the outskirt of one of the fast developing urban-cum-industrial centres in Kerala ? the Kochi city. The midland and lowland areas of the basin close to Kochi city are dotted with 667 quarries (Hard rock 374; Laterite 111; Soil 182) and 298 sand mining (Instream 181; Floodplain 117) locations. The unscientific extraction and transportation of these resources impose severe adverse impacts on various environmental components of the region. The study warrants the imminent need for regulating the mining and quarrying activities, in addition to mitigation measures for reviving the natural environmental setting of the river basin environment.