A couple of days after the regional office of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change held that a road constructed across the Kosasthalaiyar in Ennore by Tangedco was illegal, work on demolishing it began on Sunday.
Tiruvallur Collector E. Sundaravalli visited the spot with officials on Sunday morning. “By then, Tangedco had started the road clearing work,” she told The Hindu.
The Collector said work on 350 metres of the road had started by evening.
“The Chief Engineer is overseeing the operations and it is expected that the road will be completely removed in two days,” Ms. Sundaravalli said. The administration was monitoring the areas around Athipattu and Pudhu Nagar for water stagnation during the rain, she added. R.L. Srinivasan, president of the Kaatukuppukam Cooperative Society, said work on removing the road had begun after the Collector visited the spot.
On Friday, fishermen in Ennore staged a protest over the road being levelled at the mouth of the Kosasthalaiyar.
The inspection report submitted by the MoEF’s regional office found that the road laid by Tangedco obstructs the natural flow of water in the Ennore creek, which could cause flooding.
Lack of permission
It further said “Tangedco has encroached upon and blocked the backwaters of Ennore Creek beneath the Ennore highway bridge” without obtaining permission from the MoEF and Tamil Nadu Coastal Zone Management Authority.
According to a post on the Coastal Resource Centre website that has been campaigning to save the Ennore ecosystem, encroachment by Tangedco across the Kosasthalaiyar was ordered to be removed after eight months of campaigning by fishers from Kaattukuppam, Mugatwarakuppam, Ennore Kuppam and Sivanpadai Kuppam and subsequent to district officials’ visit on Sunday morning.
