Visakhapatnam: The Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation authorities, unmindful of the environmental implications, embarked on cutting of trees on the beach road and in some parts of the city as a part of the beautification programme for the ensuing international conferences and summits scheduled for next month.
During the last two days, GVMC personnel started pruning and trimming of trees on the meridian of the beach road and painted them with various enamel colours. In the first phase, trees were cut from Tenneti Park to Sagarnagarnagar area and the road leading to the collectorate.
Worst of all, heavy machinery was deployed on the shore to level sand from Jodugullapalem to Bheemili beach flattening the sand dunes and destroying the natural beauty of the beach all along the 28-km stretch.
Activists have dashed off letters to the chief secretary, the ministry of environment, forests and climate change and other agencies enforcing the Coastal Regulation Zone.
“It is a clear violation of Marine Natural Resources Protection Act which prohibits with the natural supply and movement of the sand and sections of Coastal Regulation Zone,’’ said Jana Sena leader and GVMC corporator P.L.N. Murthy Yadav, who has been waging a war against the government for destruction of green cover in city for the last two years.
Talking to this correspondent, Yadav said the GVMC sanctioned Rs 1.35 crore for levelling sand and Rs 1 crore for painting of trees and other public structures. He said he would launch an agitation against the GVMC activities from Monday.
Another activist said levelling of sand on the beach would destroy nesting ground of Olive Ridley turtles, an endangered species and other rare marine living things. He said he was aghast when he saw young trees being chopped off to make them lamp posts.
A morning walker said he was surprised to learn that the GVMC officials are planning to fix lights on the coconut trees on the beach road. When informed the officials that radiation from the lights would harm the trees, he replied that LED bulbs were harmless.
A former bureaucrat said “the G20 delegates would be shell shocked if they learned that trees were cut for their visit. They would have definitely objected if they were informed earlier”, the retired official said.
Defending the pruning of trees, GVMC commissioner told the media that people were complaining that the trees were blocking the streetlights. “We are only trimming the trees as part of beautification work and not cutting them,’’ said Mayor G. Hari Venkata Kumari.
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