CHENNAI/THOOTHUKUDI: Like his many a battle waged on the field for the welfare of the downtrodden and marginalised sections, R Nallakannu also fought a legal battle to check the unbridled indiscriminate looting of sand from the Thamirabarani at Tholappanpannai, a village near his native in Thoothukudi district.
At the age of 85, he approached the Madurai Bench of the Madras HC, in 2010, with a PIL to cancel the licence granted for quarrying sand from one of the lifelines of the southern districts as the natural resource was mined in excess of the permitted level. He argued his case on his own as appearing as a party-in-person before a division bench of justices R Banumathi and S Nagamuthu.
Nallakannu was one of the petitioners in the case and eventually the matters led to the court to order the state to constitute a state-level monitoring committee headed by a retired judge of the High Court. to keep vigil on river sand and other sand quarrying.
However, the battle did not end there as those indulging in plundering the river obtained permission to mine sand from Srivaikuntam anaicut. Nallakannu resorted to protest by entering the sand quarry. Being the honorary president of Thamirabarani-Srivaikuntam Anaicut Protection and Struggle Committee, Nallakannu obtained a stay for mining activity in June 2015, thus bringing an end to the mining of sand from Thamirabarani.
“Because of his relentless agitation, the ghost of illegal river mining came to an end”, said activist V Gunaselan, who participated in the agitation. Activists said they will continue to fight for conserving the river. Writer Muthalankurichi Kamarasu appealed to the government to take efforts towards rejuvenation of the river that is affected by contamination to fulfill the wishes of the departed leader.