Kalyanapulova Reservoir Mining Ban Brings Cheer To Tribals In Vizag

Hyderabad: After sustained protests from activists and locals, authorities in Vishakhapatnam have taken action against indiscriminate granite mining in the Eastern ghats, especially in the agency region.

The Superintending Engineer from the Irrigation Department Sasi Bhushana Rao in a two-page report has said that mining companies have failed to acquire the required permission to begin the activity.

The report accessed by the news minute reads, "The Water Resources Department has not given any permission or any No Objection Certificate (NOC) for the above quarry leases. The above quarry sites are in the Kalyanapulova Reservoir Catchment area. The distance from this water body to the above quarries varies from four to five km."

"The reservoir is having a catchment area of 21.5 sq miles with an ayacut of 4,484 acres. The farmers of this reservoir are frequently representing for declaring reservoir catchment area as non-mining zone. Further it is to submit that normally, catchment area with green cover will reduce the sedimentation into the reservoir. Green cover disturbance by way of mining is to be discouraged," it adds.

In an earlier report, locals gave pointed out how illegal mining had led to the reservoir being dried up and resulted in ground water depletion.

Also, due to the vehicular movement of the huge tracks, the roads that were laid by the Panchayat Raj Department were completely damaged.

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