If the residents of southern districts served by River Tamirabarani now getting reasonably good quality drinking water, it is because of Communist Party of India’s R. Nallakannu, whose public interest litigation and relentless campaigns put an end to rampant sand quarrying carried out without adhering to government norms by the politically, communally and financially powerful sand mafia along the 122 km-long perennial river.
After The Hindu carried a series of reports with photographs on rampant sand quarrying along the Tamirabharani water course, the Madurai Bench of Madras High Court, while taking suo motu action, appointed an Advocate Commissioner to inspect the quarries along with experts. The report submitted by the Advocate Commissioner led to temporary closure of the sand quarries.
Demanding a permanent ban on sand quarrying in the Tamirabarani, Mr. Nallakannu approached the Madurai Bench of Madras High Court in 2010 and the veteran leader’s personal submission in simple and humble language before the court ensured the banning of sand quarrying in Tamirabarani for five years in November 2010.
To create awareness among the public about this positive legal intervention, the veteran leader, then in his eighties, led the ‘Save Tamirabarani’ campaign in Tirunelveli and Thoothukudi districts to tell the citizens about the ban, which was later extended for another three years.
When rampant sand mining in the Tamirabarani resumed in the guise of desilting of Srivaikuntam dam, it was the sustained agitations led by Mr. Nallakannu that ensured the stopping of sand mining in the river far off from the dam.
