The Kerala High Court has directed the Chief Secretary to set up a high-level committee to check whether the removal of sand and soil from the Thottappally spillway in Alapuzha can be carried out without harming the ecology of the region.
A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Nitin Jamdar and Justice Syam Kumar V.M. observed on Thursday that any decision on the matter ought to be taken on the basis of environmental assessment. Flood-control measures should be balanced by including an ecological impact monitoring mechanism that ensures compliance with environmental safeguards, the court said.
Stating that the ecological impact of the activity cannot be ignored, especially since the area falls within the jurisdictional ambit of the Kerala Coastal Zone Management Authority, the court directed the Chief Secretary to constitute a committee headed by the District Collector, Alappuzha, with experts and officials from the departments of Irrigation and Water Resources, Forest and Wildlife, Kerala Coastal Zone Management Authority, the Purakkad and Thakazhy grama panchayats and representative of a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) having local presence and expertise.
The committee should be competent enough to suggest, determine and monitor all aspects of sand or soil mining and removal from the Thottappally Spillway after due assessment of its ecological and environmental impact. Removal of soil/sand from the Thottappally Spillway/sand bar should hence be carried out only after obtaining relevant inputs from the said committee constituted within two months, the court added.
The direction was issued on the basis of petitions filed by Green Roots Nature Conservation Forum, Thottappally, and by M.R. Omanakuttan, also from Thottappally. They had challenged the legality of an order and the ecological impact of flood containment measures that the Alappuzha District Collector, as the Chairman of the District Disaster Management Authority, had issued. They included the removal of sand from the Thottappally Spillway as well as the soil accumulated in the Thanneermukkam Bund and the cutting and removal of casuarina trees which ‘blocked’ the flow of water from the spillway.
They contended that the sand removal measures were not a disaster prevention measure, as made out to be. Their real objective, allegedly, is to permit continuous and unregulated extraction of mineral-rich sand from the area, unmindful of its ecological impact. The direct result during the past few years is the devastation of nearly 15 acres of ecologically sensitive area near the spillway, which is also a ‘turtle nesting ground’ coming under Regulation Zone Notification, 2011. Species of Olive Ridley and Hawksbill turtle, which are included in Schedule I of the Wildlife Protection Act, use the said area as nesting grounds. Among others, this would have a detrimental impact on such protected nesting grounds.
Published – December 19, 2025 06:36 pm IST
