Members of the Annur Vatta Kulam Kuttai Pathugapu Iyakkam were at the Coimbatore Collectorate on Friday to register their opposition to the mining that was in progress at the 120-acre tank in Kattampatty village in Annur block.
The members said that the person who had obtained permission for mining in the tank, on the pretext of desilting the water body, used heavy machinery to remove the rich earth from the tank bed.
The person, who is the beneficiary of a mining lease granted by the district administration, has allegedly sold a load of earth at Rs. 2,500, much to their chagrin.
He was doing it on the pretext of desilting and deepening the tank, which had not seen water for the past 40 years. Another reason the person was saying was that he was readying the tank for the Avinashi Athikadavu Thittam, which was also false.
The move to mine earth from the tank would result in water level going down, feared the residents, who pointed out that at present the water was available below the depth of 500 feet.
Aside from eroding the natural wealth of the tank, the tank mining operation also went against the State Government’s scheme of economically uplifting the people by giving cattle, as the beneficiaries needed grazing land and the tank was one in the area.