HYDERABAD: Telangana Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (PCCF) R Sobha has not recommended the proposal of conducting a uranium survey and exploration in a 83-sq km area of the Amrabad Tiger Reserve, by the Atomic Minerals Directorate for Exploration and Research (AMDER) of the Department of Atomic Energy.
The Telangana government had come under severe criticism from environmentalists last year, after it came to light that the State Board for Wildlife and the previous Telangana PCCF had cleared the proposal in 2016. Following this, even the Central government agencies — National Board for Wildlife and Forest Advisory Committee — granted in-principle clearances.
This was despite the AMDER not submitting proposals in the format prescribed by the Centre.The rejection of the proposal by the PCCF comes after AMDER re-submitted the proposal in the necessary format. According to the proposal, the uranium exploration would require drilling of 1,000 coring boreholes of three-inch diameter and 3,000 non-coring boreholes of six-eight inch diameter.
Drilling would require felling of many trees
The field reports by Forest Divisional Officers from Nagarjunasagar and Amrabad divisions of the Amrabad Tiger Reserve, available in public domain, point out that drilling of boreholes would mean movement of men and machinery. This would require felling of a large number of trees and forming tracks at least five-metres wide. As a result, they did not recommend the project.
The field director (FD) of the Amrabad Tiger Reserve also did not recommend the project, citing that it would take five years to complete and would disturb the movement of endangered wildlife. He also pointed out that the project, if taken up, would cause pollution of “monumental proportions” of water resources and soil, thereby impacting the life of people and wildlife.
The FD also said as the project aims at extraction of uranium from the area, which is catchment of the Krishna and Dindi rivers, the radioactive mineral may leach into the ground and pollute rivers. This would have a disastrous effect on the drinking and irrigation water reaching Hyderabad, the adjoining districts and even certain areas in Andhra Pradesh.