Encroachment by prawn farms; Villagers seek TN govt help

Fed up with prawn farms encroaching waterbodies and forcing them to migrate, residents of a village in this district have urged the Tamil Nadu government to get them removed so that they can return.
Those who had left Koraikootam village and the residents there took up the issue of the alleged encroachments with the Deputy Block Development officer Vasudevan at a meeting in the hamlet recently.
They passed a resolution urging the government to free the village of shrimp farms, restore water sources and also neutralise the chemical impact on the groundwater level in the area.
The residents alleged that such farming had caused widespread environmental pollution as very inefficient methods were used by the owners.

Claiming that the water resources in the village had been polluted, Mohammed Sikkander, coordinator of the movement to save the village, said people had to buy potable water spending around Rs 1,500 a month.
He also said chemicals and fish waste affected the ground water so badly that it could not be used for irrigation, which forced the people to also give up farming.
Around 150 families had migrated to other places and they formed the "Koraikootam Village Retrieval" group to take up their cause with the authorities.
The residents said they would intensify their stir if the officials did not take efforts to remove the shrimp farms and retrieve the water sources.