MADURAI: For the last several months, people living in Alanganallur and Vadipatti taluks have been facing frequent outages, as power lines are damaged by overgrown trees near Sholavandan reserve forest.
Former president of Chitravellapati panchayat G Selvarani told TNIE, “Our village is surrounded by trees and farmlands. We have been troubled by power outages for several years. The power lines, which pass through trees and vegetation along the Sholavandan reserve, snap whenever a branch falls on them. It takes four to six hours to fix the line,” she said, alleging Tangedco has yet to take action on their complaints regarding the issue.
Selvarani said, “Not just our village, several villages such as Valapatti, A Kovilpatti, Theththur, and Vikkiramangalam are affected. We don’t know how to resolve it.”
“Whenever it rains, we are afraid of power cuts,” said Valayapatti panchayat former president I Gayathri. “If it rains in the evening, we remain in the dark for the entire night. We found out only later that the power lines passing through the reserve forest caused the problem. Some of these bushes are eight to 10 feet high,” she said.
“After we lodged a complaint, Tangedco staff cleared the vegetation near the high-tension lines, but left those near the low-tension untouched,” she added.
A senior official from Tangedco (Madurai) said, “We are aware of the issue. Even small overgrown branches cause outages in all sections. The power lines are passing through trees that are part of the Sholavandan forest reserve. As the lines, for around four to five kilometres, pass through or near these trees, we have sought permission from the forest department to trim the branches. An assistant executive engineer also visited the spot, and the department will resolve the issue soon.”