Over 5000 men and women from surrounding villages are opposing the project, insisting the power plant has drained the wetland,thus destroying the fragile ecology and inundating their paddy fields with water.
One of the farmers said, "They have built this embankment to divert water, its now flooded my fields."
The area supports workers who extract salt from the wetland and over 1000 fishermen, whose livelihood now hangs in balance.
People in Kakrapalli claim they use traditional methods of catching fish but now with the setting up of power plant and wetlands drained fish catch has declined and consequently the peoples livelihood.
EAS Sharma the main petitioner in the case has alleged many environment violations. Sharma said, "This is a project where construction started without prior environment clearance given which is a violation of the EPA and water act of Andrha Pradesh." Read the full report here.
Source: Bahar Dutt, CNN-IBN, Kakrapalli.
