Rajahmundry: Flooding and soil erosion are jeopardising the existence of habitations on island villages on the Godavari river. Urgent efforts are called for to protect lives and crops. This is true of both the Godavari districts.
Irrespective of whether the river maintains its normal flow or has heavy floods, the island villages continue to suffer from soil erosion. Villages located in I. Polavaram, Mamidikuduru, Mummidivaram in East Godavari and Yelamanchali mandal in West Godavari bear the brunt of soil erosion. Island villages like Lankala Gannavaram, Gannavaram, Mondepu Lanka, Athreyapuram, Yedurlanka, Pasupulanka, Komaragiri, Patha Injaram, Gutthenadeevi, Kesanakurru, Kotha Muramalla, Kanakaya Lanka, Ayodhya Lanka and others face the problem on a regular basis.
At Yedurlanka village, nearly 40 acres of land was eroded over time. The main reason is that, as Godavari merges into Bay of Bengal at Yanam, its administration has strengthened the flood banks of the river by constructing revetments with cement and concrete. While the flood bank of the river has been strengthened towards the Yanam side, the flood bank on the other end of the river at Yedurlanka is having no such strong revetment. This is resulting in the backwaters of the river gushing towards the land, resulting in soil er-osion. At another island, Athreyapuram, nearly five acres of land was eroded.
The island dwellers rai-se coconut plantations, maize, vegetables and other horticulture crops. Cultivation of pulses is also catching up. As the river water surges towa-rds the islands, the cultivable area is being lost.
Amalapuram revenue divisional officer G. Ganesh Kumar said, “About 10,000 people live on the islands. The islands are getting shrunk due to the surge in river water. Unless river water is stopped from entering the islands, the crops and habitations will be affected.”
Amalapuram MP Pandula Ravindra Babu has urged the Centre to address the issues and provide relief to the people. Based on directions from the Union minister of state for environment and forests Prakash Javadekar, a central team of off-icials has been asked to visit the island and submit a report.
He said, “Oil and gas firms are extracting huge quantum of hydrocarbons in the area bud they do not help in providing any relief to the affected people. Their vehicles damage roads and their activities affect cultivable lands. I have taken up these issues with the Centre.”
