Desilting of Adyar river mouth stopped after activists object

CHENNAI: The public works department on Tuesday stopped desilting the Adyar river mouth, following objections from social activists, environmentalists and members of the Student Sea Turtle Conservation Network. A complaint had been lodged with the Sastri Nagar police, seeking criminal action against the offenders.
The government in September 2010 awarded the contract to Prim and Proper Enterprises (P) Limited to remove one lakh cubic metres of sand from river mouth and transport it to the Vallur thermal power plant site.Work on the two-year project, a venture of the National Thermal Power Corporation Limited and the Tamil Nadu Electricity Board, began on Friday last.
"As per revenue records, the river mouth is 650 m wide. However, presently it is only 25 m wide and prevents the flow of water. Following complaints from the Saidapet and Mylapore zonal offices about the mosquito menace, we began clearing the mouth," a senior PWD official told TOI. The department, which plans to resume operations after May 13, has asked the Mylapore Taluk office to fix the boundary of the river mouth.
Activists allege that the desilting works are unauthorised. "If clearance has been obtained (for the work), the ongoing activity would be illegal as the sand removed is not from the river mouth but from the beach," says Sharada Shankar of the Save Beaches Campaign. The complaint preferred with the police sought criminal action against the "illegal sand-miners."
Despite being told by the police to stop the work on Monday night, the contractor, the activists alleged, had completed digging the beach' and created a new course for the river. Such "large-scale mining," realigning the river course, and interfering with the flow of sea water, they alleged, would be devastating and irrepairable, in terms of the ecological impact.
Fishing communities, already apprehensive over the proposed elevated expressway along the coast, are also uhappy with the desilting exercise. Says K Saravanan of Orur Kuppam: "During disasters in the past, including tsunami, the Adyar river mouth saved the fishing communities. Now, it is being opened wide and we fear the worst. The government should have informed local community before taking up such works."