Sand mafia ravages Narsapur

Hyderabad: Digging up the Narsapur forest area, the city’s carbon sink, for sand and soil is going on unabated as Forest officials refuse to acknowledge the

problem. Huge craters are seen in several areas in the forest near Narsapur village in Medak district, situated 50 km from the city.

A group of bird watchers recently clicked photographs of tractors moving in the forest area illegally.

AP Biodiversity Board expert committee member Mathen Rajeev Mathew said, “We had gone for bird watching to the Narsapur Forest a few days ago and were dismayed to see rampant digging for sand and soil. Several tractors were seen as also men and women digging the forest for soil and sand down to 15 feet.” He added that most of the tractors were running without number plates.

Experts said that the Narsapur forest land is a good carbon sink as it is located near Hyderabad, particularly the Jeedimetla industrial area and other industrial clusters.

The forest is important as it acts as a sink for rain water, moderation of water and other several eco-system services.

Experts say that these large craters that have been dug could later form pools of water and change the micro habitat of the area; animals might also drown in the pools as the sides of the craters are steep and soft.

Forest officials, meanwhile, refuted claims that sand digging was going on in the area. They claimed that a lake shikam land (falling in Full Tank Level) in the village had been dug and not the forest area.

Narsapur forest range officer V. Mohan said, “After higher official alerted me, I checked the area and there was no digging of forest land. It was lake shikam land in Narsapur. A survey was conducted by us recently and we found that it fell under the lake bed land.”