Pass resolution against uranium mining in Kurnool forest, Andhra rights outfit urges Naidu govt

The visit and the statement came a few months after protests by the locals prompted the Andhra Pradesh government to halt uranium mining exploration by the Atomic Minerals Directorate for Exploration and Research (AMD). Uranium is a highly radioactive metal. Residents fear that uranium mining in the area will contaminate groundwater tables in the area and pose serious health consequences in the area.

Protests by the locals prompted the Andhra Pradesh government to halt uranium mining exploration. (Express Photo)

In its statement, HRF claims that the state government’s assurance that it will not take any further action on the processing of the proposal until further orders “is only a transient measure”. “Ominously, there remains the danger of potential exploration and subsequent mining for uranium in the area,” V S Krishna, HRF’s Coordination Committee member, said.

According to the statement, the AMD had initiated a fresh proposal recently to drill 68 borewells to assess uranium reserves in the Kappatralla reserve forest, located in the Pathikonda section of Adoni forest range.

Calling uranium mining is “an unacceptable risk to humanity and the environment and that it is unviable in social and ethical terms”, the HRF said it would have a “deleterious impact on local hydrology” and will impact several villages in the mandals of Pathikonda, Devanakonda, Kodumur and Gonegandla.

“The scars of uranium mining will remain permanent. It poses significant threats with residues from mining remaining toxic for hundreds of thousands of years. An entire population in the area will be endangered with extremely serious health problems, known and potentially unknown. These would include congenital deformities, children born with skeletal distortions, partially formed skulls, blood disorders, sterility and a broad variety of physical deformities. One has only to visit Jaduguda in Jharkhand where uranium mining takes place to see this devastation. It is established that mining sites remain highly dangerous for years after they stop operating,” the statement said.

Calls and text messages to Dheeraj Pande, the director of Atomic Minerals Directorate for Exploration and Research (AMD) at Hyderabad, and Daniel Babu Perupayikkad, head, Public Awareness & Media Interaction Division (PA&MID), Department of Atomic Energy, Mumbai, went unanswered.