Kothagudem: The government has secured the state 1 clearance to acquire some 3,800 acres of reserve forests for the Sitarama lift irrigation project, affecting the flora, fauna and wildlife of Bhadrari-Kothagudem district.
The forest is rich in biodiversity with 1,939 species of plants, 165 of bird, 103 mammals, 21 species and 13 amphibian species.
The district has dense teak forests along the banks of the river Godavari, from Pinapaka to Burgumpahad mandals. Nallamaddi, yegisa, rose wood, narepa, and bamboo flourish as well.
To accommodate the canal of the Sitarama project, about 2.5 lakh trees and plants will be destroyed. Many of these trees are a hundred years old. It is estimated that 2.5 lakh trees will die.
Environmentalists say it will take over 1,000 years to re-grow a similar project. When the forest department hands over the 3,800 acres of land, it will cut down all the plants and trees on the land.
The ecological balance, bio-diversity conservation, conservation of soil and moisture, regulating the water flow, green house gas mitigation, sequestering carbon-dioxide from the atmosphere will all be adversely affected by the action of the state government.
The justification is the benefits the project will bring to the area — it is expected to irrigate 6.74 lakh acres including creation of irrigation potential of 3.28 lakh acres in Khammam and Bhadradri-Kothagudem districts.
The state government has to pay Rs 350 crore to the central forest department as compensation. It must also acquire and hand over the same extent of land to the forest department, and the forest department is supposed to plant trees on that land.
