Hyderabad: It is going to be a protracted struggle between the Indian Navy and the environmental activists of Telangana, as the latter have resolved to take the movement to #SaveDamagundamForest to New Delhi, even as the BRS, Congress and BJP have been complicit in their plans to clear more than 12 lakh trees to facilitate construction of a low-frequency radar station at Damagundam forest in Vikarabad district.
Though many believe that the issue came to light only after the Congress government came to power, it allotted around 2,900 acres of forest land to the Indian Navy to facilitate the construction of the radar station. Environmental activists who have been fighting the proposal for over two decades claim otherwise.
“Until 2018, 2,713 acre land in Damagundam forest was under the jurisdiction of the endowments department, attached to the Ramalingeshwara temple located inside the forest. But in 2019, the entire land was transferred to the forest department, because if it was a temple land no project could come on it,” said Thulasi Chandu, independent journalist and activist, who is now leading the last leg of the “Save Damagundam Forest.”
Having thoroughly gone through various documents related to the Naval project, Thulasi Chandu said that only 300 contract worker jobs were assured to around 60,000 people living in 20 villages surrounding the forest which is located just 80 km away from Hyderabad.
A protest was held at Dharna Chowk near Indira Park on Sunday, with a unified demand to stall the project, for which a decision was taken for land allotment to the Indian Navy just ten days after the Congress came to power in Telangana.
“The entire 2,713 acre land belonged to the endowments department before it was handed over to the forest department. The forest department had only 164 acres in that forest. Why didn’t the endowments department question the land which included alienating the 500-year-old Ramalingeshwara temple land,” she questioned.
Former MLC K Nageshwar questioned how the state government could implement the Musi rejuvenation project by destroying the very source of the river, the Damagundam forest, which is the catchment area for the Musi, Esa and Kagna rivers, which feed the reservoirs and tanks in Hyderabad all the way up to Nalgonda district.
“The state government is demolishing the illegal encroachments along the Musi river and also under the Gandipet (Osmansagar) reservoir. If they destroy the very source of the water, how can they save Gandipet from getting dried up?” he questioned.
“For any such project, there has to be an environmental impact assessment done. If at all there is any, the state government should place it in the public domain,” he demanded.
“How is this low-frequency radar station different than the ones in Selfridge AFB radar station in Michigan, or the Kattabomman Radar Station in Tirunelveli? Has the government conducted any public hearings on the issue,” he questioned, reminding those in power that in a democracy there is something called accountability and that the governments need to convince the people before approving a project of that scale.
Thulasi Chandu noted that since 2008, efforts were being made to acquire the project, and that signatures were taken from the then sarpanch of some of the villages, who are barely educated.
Though BRS working president KT Rama Rao and former BRS MLA from Parigi Maheshwar Reddy have announced that they will take the movement to the next level, which is to hold the Congress government in Telangana and the BJP government at the Centre, by supporting this movement from Vikarabad, to holding protests in Delhi; they conveniently ignore the facts of how the land was transferred from the endowments department to forest department in 2019.
“We have been stalling this project since 2014. But the present chief minister has allotted the land as soon as Congress came to power. We will do everything to support you in logistics if you want to hold a protest in Vikarabad or even in Delhi,” assured Maheshwar Reddy, speaking at the dharna.
However, well aware of the two-decade-long tactics of environmental destruction since the undivided Andhra Pradesh cutting across all the parties, the activists have decided to hold a human chain around the forest soon. They are also contemplating a movement similar to the Chipko Movement of 1973, where the local tribes held on to around 300 trees, to save them from being cleared.
“Just like lakhs and crores of people had come together to save the Nallamala Forests from uranium mining, we should also come out in crores to save this destruction of Damagundam forest,” appealed revolutionary singer Vimalakka.
Irrespective of whether any political party would support or not, the people’s activists have resolved to take the movement to the next level, and have pledged not to let the radar station of the Navy to progress.
| 
