Wildlife authorities on Saturday registered cases against Denduluru TDP MLA Chintamaneni Prabhakar and his aides for laying a road within the Atapaka bird sanctuary in the Kolleru lake without obtaining clearances.
Kaikaluru deputy ranger G. Eswara Rao told The Hindu that three cases have been registered under the Wildlife (Protection) Act 1972 and other wildlife laws against Mr. Prabhakar and four of his aides including Komatilanka panchayat sarpanch J. Syambabu and Komatilanka MPTC G. David Raju.
The road is said to have been laid from the Atapaka santurary office in Krishna district to Komatilanka village in West Godavari district. Cutting through the sanctuary, the 1 km long and 5 ft wide path was levelled with gravel using nearly 50 tractors on Friday night, according to Mr. Eswara Rao. The gravel used to lay the road was transported from Eluru.
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Wildlife authorities also stated in their case sheet that Mr. Prabhakara Rao was at the site and monitored the work till 3 a.m. Saturday. “We recorded the registration numbers of at least ten tractors. The rest of the vehicles did not bear any registration number,” said Mr. Eswara Rao. Following up, the authorities lodged a complaint against Mr. Prabhakar with the Kaikaluru town police on Saturday morning.
Strangely the staff of the Atapaka bird sanctuary did not take the help of the police to stop the road-laying work. Upon being alerted by their sources and intelligence officials about the plan on Friday night, deputy Ranger Eswara Rao and three other staff members reportedly observed the movements of vehicles in the sanctuary without bringing it into the notice of the police.
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Mr. Eswara Rao said, “I received information about the road work at around 10.30 p.m. on Friday night. However, we saw no movement of vehicles carrying gravel and workers.”
Sources said at least 100 workers were engaged for the road work which included spreading the gravel along a 1 km stretch.
The road passes directly by the office of the bird sanctuary, where forest staff were present.
Mr. Eswara Rao claimed that his repeated warnings to Mr. Prabhakar to stop the road work at midnight Friday went unheeded and hence he lodged a complaint with the police at 3 a.m. Saturday. By that time, the work had been completed and all the vehicles left the site.
Kaikaluru sub-inspector Shabbir Ahmed confirmed that the forest officials lodged their complaint after 3 a.m. and had not sought any support on Friday night.
Movement of vehicles in the sanctuary is prohibited. Flocks of open-billed storks and grey pelicans which have been nesting on either side of the road were said to have been disturbed, making noise till Saturday evening.