HYDERABAD: Dozens of activists and environmentalists staged a protest, near Indira Park’s Dharna Chowk on Sunday morning, against the state government’s decision to allot 2,900 acres of land in Vikarabad’s Damagundam Reserve Forest for the establishment of the Indian Navy’s low-frequency radar station.
During the protest, chants of ‘Save Nature, Save future’, ‘Save Damagundam, Save Musi’ and ‘Damagundam Kaavali, radar station Aapali’ echoed in the area. The demonstrators were holding placards and wore green ribbons to display the ambition of the protest.
Expressing anxiety over the state’s purported decision to axe over 12 lakh trees to erect the project, one of the environmentalists said, “Damagundam forest in Pudur of Vikarabad is about 60 km from Hyderabad,” and added, “Such large-scale axing of trees would cause serious implications on the environment and also increase global warming.
Ironically, one of the protestors even wore an oxygen mask to highlight the essentiality of trees and how cutting them down in large numbers would be harmful to the environment.
Former MLC and political analyst Professor K Nageshwar insisted that an environmental damage report be released regarding the radar project. “If the environment and development are not balanced, we will have to see natural disasters like Wayanad and Uttarakhand,” he cautioned.
Noting that river Musi originates from Vikarabad, environmentalists criticised the present government, which was taking steps to clean the river, was destroying the forest from where the river originates.
The activists also claimed that a radar project of this stature is only operational in Russia. “Even technologically advanced nations like the United Nations had to abandon these projects owing to popular opposition on grounds of ecological and health impacts,” the National Alliance of People’s Movements had mentioned in a letter written to CM A Revanth Reddy in July.
A former sarpanch of Damagundam said that the project might bring about 3,000 contract jobs to the locals, but thousands of others would lose their livelihood.
While the gathering promised to continue protesting against the radar project, folk singer Vimalakka joined in the protest and started singing, “Damagundala...Nuvvu Challagundala”.
