Prevent Jolarpet Municipality officials from going ahead with the work

Ambalur villagers expressed their opposition to the move of the Jolarpet Municipality to dig five additional borewells in the Palar River in Ambalur panchayat near Vaniyambadi to tide over the drinking water scarcity of Jolarpet residents.

Vellore MP Abdul Rahman has urged the Union Minister for Environment and Forest Jayanthi Natarajan to devise a plan to reverse the damage to the ecology of the Palar river basin using the proven bi

Industrialists planning to start polluting units in four districts of the State are unable to get the Consent to Establish (CTE) from the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board (TNPCB) as the government is not willing to relax norms.

According to TNPCB sources, the board has not taken any decision on the demand from industrialists to set up new units, including dyeing and fabric units, in Karur, Tirupur, Erode and Namakkal towns where water pollution has been a problem for a decade and more.

The district administration has taken a major initiative to rejuvenate the traditional water bodies and their inlet channels from the catchment areas at a cost of Rs 1.82 crore under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) Scheme.

Besides this, the authorities also proposed to remove the blockades in channels that connected these water bodies with the Palar River for a stretch of about 20 kms from Pallikonda to Vellore before the onset of the southwest monsoon in July.

People of Kavasambattu facing acute water scarcity for drinking and irrigation

The indiscriminate and continuous quarrying of sand from the Palar river bed in Kavasambattu village in Katpadi taluk for the last seven years has resulted in the drying up of agricultural wells and domestic wells and the consequent decline in agriculture in the village.

Farmers optimism on the state government giving a new lease to the Palar river has come a cropper with media reports suggesting that the Karnataka Government plans to block the flow of water to the Pennaiyar River altogether. Farmers here were optimistic that the state government would take up with the Union Ministry of Water Resources, the proposal to divert the excess flow of water from the Thenpennaiyar River below Krishnagiri reservoir to the water-starved Palar basin through a Pennaiyar-Palar link project.

Farmers in Ambur area complained of pollution of groundwater sources in the area on account of the indiscriminate discharge of effluents from the tanneries into the Palar river. An official of the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board said that 50 per cent of the salt is recovered from the tannery effluents in the Common Effluent Treatment Plant (CETP) in Thuthipet near Ambur.

In full flow:Following heavy rain, Palar river witnessed water flow from Thimmampet.

AMBUR: The dry riverbed of Palar river witnessed water after nearly five years over a distance of 50 km from Thimmampet following heavy rain caused by cyclone Jal. The sight of water drew several excited onlookers on Monday.

Assistant Executive Engineer of Upper Palar Basin Sub-Division, Vellore, P.

The lorries were seized by the Revenue Department officials

KANCHEEPURAM: Show cause notices have been issued to the owners of 20 sand lorries seized by the District Revenue Department officials at Sathanancheri in Uthiramerur taluk.

According to official sources, the Uthiramerur tasildar, Kasthuri received a tip off that sand was being quarried illegally from river Palar at Sathanancheri, w

Chief Minister allows mining in Kollidam river

CHENNAI: Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi has ordered a ban on mechanised sand mining in the Palar and Tamiraparani rivers.

Mr. Karunanidhi ordered the ban after a detailed review of works of the Public Works Department at the Secretariat on Thursday. He was informed of the large-scale and unsustainable sand mining in these rivers.