7 months ago
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The State Highways Department has commenced the demolition of a immense boulder, which weighs astir 15 tonnes, successful Arunachala Hills adjacent the Arunachaleswarar temple successful Tiruvannamalai municipality to forestall immoderate untoward incidents during monsoon.
Officials of State Highways, which is executing the enactment successful coordination with Tiruvannamalai Corporation, said that the identified boulder successful the hills is located conscionable supra residential country astatine the foothills.
The thickly populated country is VOC Nagar that comes nether Ward 5 of the Corporation. “Demolition of boulders successful the hills volition beryllium done utilizing technological methods. Once the immense stone is cracked, it volition beryllium breached into tiny pieces to region it from the hills. The full enactment volition beryllium completed successful a week,” S. Anbarasu, Assistant Executive Engineer (AEE), State Highways, told The Hindu.
The demolition enactment comes aft Collector K. Tharpagaraj inspected the foothills to measure the information of the rocky terrain. He directed civic officials to instrumentality precautionary measures to forestall landslides successful the hills. On December 1, 2024, 7 persons died successful the hills aft Cyclone Fengal triggered a landslide.
Highways officials said that aft the landslide incident, a immense boulder, which weighed astir 40 tonnes, was removed from the tract wherever quality lives were lost. Subsequently, bosom walls were built astatine identified spots successful the hills wherever terrain has escaped soil. These walls person respective holes to let excess rainwater from the hills to get discharged into adjacent lakes.
As the temple municipality is witnessing continuous rains, Highways officials person begun to demolish the identified boulder. “Alternative accommodation for residents astatine the foothills should beryllium provided to prolong their livelihood. Despite the landslide, residents inactive enactment successful crumbled houses astatine the foothills,” said V. Ramesh, a resident.
Forest officials said that the Arunachala Hills comes nether Adi Annamalai Reserve Forest with implicit 900 hectares, dispersed astatine 9 kms radius. The elevation is located astatine 2,668 feet-high from the oversea level wherever occurrence lit atop the hillock arsenic portion of Maha Deepam festival each year. Land astir foothills to a region of six kms belongs to the gross section portion remaining country successful the hills are forests.
