The move to transfer seven mandals of Telangana to Andhra Pradesh in order to facilitate the unhindered construction of the Polavaram project is one that will threaten the biodiversity of the Eastern Ghats. The Papikonda National Park, which is close to the dam site and abuts the banks of the Godavari, is expected to face submergence of its forests if Polavaram is constructed. The northern Eastern Ghats are home to several endemic and rare species such as the Golden Gecko, the Jeypore Ground Gecko and the Abbott’s Babbler, to name a few.
The transfer of mandals is a political step and doesn’t take the ethnography of the tribal communities, who relate more closely to the tribal groups in Telangana, Chhattisgarh and Odisha and not with coastal Andhra, into consideration.
Vikram Aditya &
T. Ganesh,
Bangalore
The Bhadrachalam revenue division which was part of East Godavari district of the Andhra region was transferred to Khammam district of the Telangana region on October 1, 1959 for administrative convenience. Therefore, it would make sense to retransfer the Bhadrachalam revenue division in toto from Khammam district to East Godavari district after the division of Andhra Pradesh. The Polavaram project proposal is said to have been initiated in 1942. It was highlighted in the first general election in 1952 by Sonti Ramamurthy, ICS, who contested the election from the Rajahmundry double-member parliamentary constituency. At that time the Polavaram project was popularly known as Ramapada Sagar project, reflecting the name of the god Ramachandramurthy of Bhadrachalam. The project was named as Indira Sagar by the Congress.
Kesiraju Sitaramaiah,
Devarapalli, West Godavari
It has been reported that the Supreme Court’s Empowered Committee on Polavaram has also suggested an alternative location and design. This is factually incorrect. It was to verify complaints by Odisha and Chhattisgarh of Andhra Pradesh’s violation of the inter-State Polavaram agreement of 1980. When the committee visited the site, several representations were made to it. In these representations, alternative sites and designs could have been referred to. Even the proposals made by T. Hanumantha Rao, which form the basis for Polavaram’s opponents to bank on, are based on a cursory examination of maps and charts and not on detailed site surveys.
K.V. Subba Rao,
Hyderabad
