Brick making is a common sight in rural Tamil Nadu around Chennai as the red clay is readily available and the demand for building materials ever growing. Structures like these dot the countryside as the bricks get slowly sold and removed. It is generally a tough livelihood done by the very poor at the margins and doesn’t provide them a very good life. It leaves the land pockmarked and unsuitable for later agriculture. But with the insatiable demand of the growing cities for bricks, sand and gravel, the mining and brick-making activities are not going to diminish any time soon. Captions and Photo source: ©© McKay Savage
Excerpts;
On the afternoon of January 20, K. Saravanan, a member of the Urur Kuppam fishermen’s panchayat and an RTI activist, spotted a road being paved using construction debris on the beach leading up to the Adyar basin. Now, mounds of sand dot the Adyar river mouth as the Public Works Department (PWD) gears up to mine sand from the Adyar and Cooum river basins, on North Marina Beach.
While officials claim that it is routine removal of sandbars from the river mouth, fishermen and local residents allege that it is sand theft and could result in adverse ecological impact.
Read Full Article, “Concerns Over Sand Mining and Road Construction on The Beach,” The Hindu
“Illegal road on Thiruvanmayur Beach, Chennai’s Coast” a NDTV Video
