Vizag activist warns of huge marine loss for minor corporate gains

Visakhapatnam: Lakhs of crores of rupees worth of marine wealth is being sacrificed for marginal corporate profits, said environmental advocate Satyanarayana Bolisetty. Speaking to the media in Visakhapatnam on Saturday, he urged the high court to appoint independent experts to assess and quantify the scale of coastal destruction. "I appeal to the citizens of Andhra Pradesh to stand united against the toxic siege of our coastline, stretching from Srikakulam to Kakinada. For the sake of generating a few hundred crores in industrial profit, we are losing lakhs of crores worth of marine biodiversity and ecological services," he said.Satyanarayana said that the prevailing industrial model is not only polluting but also economically and ecologically bankrupt, as it trades away the permanent natural wealth for short-term corporate gains. He made these remarks in connection with a public interest litigation he has filed in the high court on the same issue. Highlighting the human cost of this negligence, Satyanarayana said the resulting tragedy was recently acknowledged by deputy chief minister and minister for environment Pawan Kalyan during his meeting with government officials. "In villages such as Tadi in Anakapalli district, pollution has reached an alarming level, with reports suggesting that almost every household has at least one cancer patient," he said. "Residents are suffering from chronic skin diseases, contaminated groundwater, and a documented rise in miscarriages. For over a decade, the GVMC has permitted nearly 200 million litres of untreated sewage to be discharged into the sea every single day. To this day, there has been no reduction in sewage discharge since 2020. Why should the officers responsible for this failure not be penalised or dismissed from service?" he questioned.