YSR memorial project lands in green row

Hyderabad, May 27: Andhra Pradesh government’s grandiose plan to construct a memorial for former state chief minister Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy in the Nallamala forests has landed in a row.

Environmentalists are strictly against the project as they say it is “ being developed in a tiger reserve”. The state cabinet had approved the Rs 4- crore project last month. It is called Dr YSR Smrithi Vanam and covers an area of more than 3,000 acres in the reserve forests of Velugodu in the Nallamala, where YSR had died in a helicopter crash last September.

Information minister J. Geeta Reddy said the project involves construction of a stupa at the entrance of the Nallamala foothills, from where a 4.5- km trekking path would be laid to Pavuralagutta, the mountain where the chopper crashed.

But environmentalists say the memorial would severely affect wildlife habitat in the Velugodu reserve forest.

“ We are not against the construction of a memorial for YSR who had done great service for the state public. We only oppose it for being developed in a tiger reserve,” environmentalist Dr T. Patanjali Sastry said.

Though the information minister said the project would be carried out without sacrificing tree growth and other natural resources, the environmentalists are not convinced.

Former Union secretary EAS Sarma also wrote to environment minister Jairam Ramesh on Sunday in this regard.

—Agencies