After hundreds of Mumbaikars formed a human chain to protest against the felling of trees in Aarey colony two weeks ago, protesters have raised their voice for Mother Nature once again in Telangana.
According to News18, the treasured Nallamala forests in Andhra Pradesh & Telangana have been a soft target for greedy officials and firms eyeing mining in the area, in search of extremely valuable minerals like Uranium.
Further the Centre’s attempts to explore Uranium inside the Amrabad Tiger Reserve forced people to protest heavily and raise ‘Jai Nallamala’ and ‘Nallamala Bandh’ slogans.
The bandh was first announced after information reached the locals about surveyors from the Atomic Minerals Directorate for Exploration and Research (AMD) visiting the forest to explore the area.
The bandh was peaceful in both mandals. Mananoor town in Amrabad was shut. Activists led by Congress took out a rally. There were no untoward incidents during the bandh. As of now, we’ll be able to handle the situation ourselves. Just to be on the safe side, we have asked for additional forces to be sent in case the situation escalates.
Twitter saw #SaveNallamala trending as various people, including some Tollywood celebs, took to their social handles to talk about the graveness of the situation.
The proposed uranium exploration has caused panic amongst the locals who believe they could be asked to vacate the forest and would have to go and live elsewhere.