CHENNAI | Feb 23, 2017: The Sholavaram reservoir is being methodically plundered. Each night, tonnes of sand from one of the city's key water reservoirs, now practically dry, are carted away to feed the burgeoning construction industry .

Villagers of Nallur in Tiruvallur district, where the 850-acre lake is located, say repeated complaints to the authorities concerned have failed to galvanise them into action.

From 11pm, a resident told TOI on condition of anonymity, trucks and earthmovers start roaring into the quiet village and the illegal activity goes on until 3am. "By then, about 1,500 tonnes of red soil, on average, are dug out by earthmovers," the resident added.

Trucks then carry the sand to secluded areas abutting the defunct Sholavaram air strip and within a two km radius of the reservoir. It remains there before being taken to construction sites for landfilling or laying roads. It is also used in gardening.

When this reporter visited the spot on Wednesday, earthmover tracks were clearly visible on the lake bed, signs of the previous night's plunder. Five ft deep pits had been gouged out.

The mining has been going on for the last couple of months and has intensified over the past few weeks, a few villagers said. Unscientific mining can af fect the stability of the nearly 150-yearold reservoir with a capacity of 881 mcft (million cubic feet), warn experts.

Former Central Water Commission chairman A B Pandey said mining deep below the ground level of reservoir was dangerous. "If a free run is allowed, it may cause a lot of harm," he said. There are also larger fears about the risk to the environment.

A few villagers said the frequent movement of heavy vehicles through the area at odd hours robbed them of their sleep. Trucks access the reservoir through a narrow road leading to Nallur from the national highway (GNT Road).

"We have taken up the issue on several occasions at various levels in the Tiruvallur district administration. But, it appears that no action has been initiated against the law breakers," a villager said, wondering why multiple departments were remaining mute spectators to such wanton destruction of natural resources.

Sources in the state public works department (PWD), which maintains the reservoir, admitted that illegal mining did take place at night, but said they could could do little to control because of poor cooperation from other departments.

When contacted, Ponneri tahsildar M S Senthilnathan said instructions had been issued to PWD to create ditches for preventing the entry of lorries into the reservoir.

"The Sholavaram reservoir is porous and vehicles can enter it easily. If ditches are made around the facility the movement of heavy vehicles can be stopped," he added.

(Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/)