As earthmovers started uprooting tall bushes that have grown in the Palar River bed, between the Old Palar Bridge and the New Palar Bridge here on Friday, it heralded the inauguration of the much-awaited project of the VIT University of clearing the bushes in the river which has turned into a jungle over the years.
The proposal submitted by the VIT, more than a year ago, to clear the river between Konavattam and New Bus Stand, was recently cleared by the Chief Engineer of the Water Resources Organisation (WRO) of the Public Works Department.
A power point presentation made earlier by VIT pointed out in detail about how the Palar, which once flooded during the monsoon, has slowly turned dry.
Check dams
The river had lost its underground water resources due to indiscriminate construction of check dams across the river by the Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka governments.
Despite the fact that a major portion of the Palar, measuring more than 10,000 hectares passed through Tamil Nadu, AP and Karnataka governments constructed several check dams without obtaining permission from the Tamil Nadu government. A situation arose three decades back wherein the Palar was flooded only when the Bethamangalam reservoir in Karnataka overflowed and the Karnataka Government released water from the reservoir. The river in course of time turned into a thick jungle full of bushes.
The worst part of the story is that the river is full of `karuvelam’ trees which have deep roots and absorb the underground water.
As a result the groundwater wealth of Palar is slowing depleating. This has resulted in chronic drinking water scarcity in Vellore Corporation and various municipalities in Vellore district. It has also made water scarce for irrigation making Vellore a drought-prone district.
The Palar clean-up project is the result of the realisation of VIT Chancellor G. Viswanathan, environmentalists and the citizens of Vellore district, that a beginning has to be made by clearing the bushes in the river so that the river gets back its water retaining and percolation capacity.
Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Viswanathan said that though the VIT has initiated the project, it is a joint initiative of the government, the NGOs, traders and the general public of Vellore. It is estimated that the work on clearing the bushes in the Palar for a distance of five km from the New Bus Stand to Konavattam would cost Rs.1.53 crores. The public of Vellore and the NGOs should join hands in undertaking the task. He also appealed to the central government to revive the river link project, which, he said, was the panacea for solving the problem of water scarcity.
Tamilmaran, Project Director, Centre for Sustainable Rural Development and Research Education, VIT said that contributions to the tune of Rs.26.31 lakhs have been received, as promised by various NGO, traders and members of the public for the project, so far.
The much-awaited project, of, VIT University, of clearing the bushes in the Palar was inaugurated recently
