Forest staff prevent villagers from desilting 3 km channel in reserve area
About 150 villagers, including women, who attempted to desilt a channel to ensure supply for three irrigation tanks and recharge ground water table for 20 villages were stopped by Forest Department staff near Pernambut on Tuesday.
migrator
Vellore
The issue pertains to a channel leading to Jaffrabad lake being silted up due to which locals had petitioned Vellore Collector A Shanmuga Sundaram to desilt the same. The link supplies to irrigation tanks in Sithakanavai, Kamalapuram and Gowrapet villages and recharge ground water in nearby 20 villages.
The Collector, accompanied by forest officials, visited the locality on November 10, but could not initiate action immediately as the area was inside the reserve forest.
Meanwhile, Cyclone Nivar resulted in a breach in British era check dam in the forest near Sithakanavai resulting in heavy flow toward lakes near Gudiyattam.
Things came to a head when nearly 150 men and women from three villages entered the forest area to desilt the channel for three km so that water would flow to their villages.
On coming to know of their incursion, Pernambut forest range staff rushed to the spot and prevented villagers from undertaking desilting work stating that non-forest work could not be undertaken inside a reserve forest without the requisite permission.
Villagers stayed put in the forest area for 5 hours from 11 am to 4 pm and then returned as forest staff refused to relent.
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