Visakhapatnam: The AP High Court on Thursday asked the Ministry of Environment and Forests to conduct a survey and submit a report on the building activities being taken up by the state Tourism Development Corporation at Rushikonda resort on the Visakhapatnam beach road.
This follows the filing of a public interest litigation by GVMC corporator and Jana Sena leader PLN Murthy Yadav and petitions from Visakhapatnam East MLA and TD leader Velagaludi Ramakrishna Babu and Narsapur MP Raghu Ramakrishna Raju.
The court posted the case for hearing on December 14.
Murthy said in his petition that he had informed the authorities on January 31 this year that court orders were being violated, following the cutting of trees, dumping of debris and starting of development activity in the conservation of zone. These, he said, was done in violation of the Master Plan.
He said the Rushikonda hill area spreads over 61 acres. Of these, APTDC obtained permissions for development of 9.8acres. “There is massive digging. A small piece of the mountain is left in the middle of Rushikonda. The rest of the mountain has been completely dug. APTDC exceeded its digging limits there and this has caused a lot of air pollution. It did not take any steps to check pollution,” the court was told.
Murthy said APTDC dumped building material waste and gravel over the naturally formed sea-sand dunes between areas of the Low Tide Level and High Tide Level that fall within CRZ-I. This entire area has been mentioned as a ‘no development zone’ as per CRZ notifications.
“Sand dunes are where tortoises hatch and breed their eggs. Due to the gravel dumping, the tortoises are in the danger zone during their nesting period. The debris also have an adverse impact on the remaining sea habitat.”
The act of depositing gravel and debris is not only violative of the permissions accorded to the tourism corporation there but also runs contrary to the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986 and the pollution control norms, Murthy said.
