THOOTHUKUDI: A decade has passed since the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court ordered to recover fresh water tanks encroached by salt pans in Vembar region.
However, district administration remains a mute spectator to the illegal salt pan at Vembar and South Vembar village panchayats of Vilathikulam taluk.
The contempt of court orders had resulted in further conversion of tanks, streams and government porambokke lands into salterns, which has led to flood during the rain.
Sources said, the stream Tharakudi Tharuvai has several tanks and drains into Vembar River, a distributary of Vaippar River. The stream flows north-west to join with Vembar at Tharakudi village panchayat.
While, Vilathikulam revenue officials denied the encroachment by salt pans, reports from the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board (TNPCB) confirmed the existence of illegal salt pans along Vembar.
Based on a writ petition filed by A Gunasekaran of Vembar, the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court on September 2, 2015 ordered the authority concerned to take necessary action to recover the encroached areas. TNIE had visited the salt pans where the tanks existed before.
Gunasekaran told TNIE, “The illegal salt pans are largely established on the Tharakudi Tharuvai stream. The Thambakaranpillai Urani and Melaramarayapuram Kanmoi have been converted into salt pans,” he said.
Gunasekaran said that he had been fighting for the cause for the last 12 years. However, officials refuse to survey the land even after he paid the survey cost which is not required for government land, as they are allegedly in collusion with the salt pan owners, he suspected. He added that he is not financially stable enough to fight the salt pan owners.
Official sources said the former Vilathikulam tasildar Lenin managed to recover 14 acres of the Tharakudi tharuvai from the salt pan encroachment in 2022 and the process stopped there.
Since, there was no action against encroachment of waterbodies, a few industrialists are preparing to establish salt pans on the water bodies and a few have even obtained patta.
“Also, residents of Periyasamypuram, Muthaiyapuram, Kunjaiyapuram and Pachaiayapuram complained about groundwater salinity in recent years. People of Melmanthai are aggrieved by the reducing agriculture cover due to the salinity. The public said the salt pans are 2 to 4 km inland from the shore. The salt pans owners had dug more than 400 illegal bore wells in the region, which has turned the groundwater saline,” said R Solinselvan of Vembar.
Speaking to TNIE, Vilathiukulam tasildar persuasively said that there are no permanent structures in the water bodies and deflected the questions related to the presence of illegal salt pans on the Tharakudi Tharuvai and its tanks.
When contacted by TNIE, Collector K Elambahavath said that encroaching upon water bodies cannot be tolerated. He would take necessary steps to recover the encroached area to protect the waterbodies, he said.
TNIE story & NGT action
It may be noted that National Green Tribunal (NGT) had taken suo motu cognizance of the story - "Salt-Pan encroachments in rivers caused flood: Vilathikulam Residents" - appeared in The New Indian Express on December 28, 2023. The case has been posted to January 22, 2025 after the learned counsel appearing for the Water Resources Department (WRD) sought more time to file its report.