Sustained agitation by villagers of Kappatralla and surrounding villages in the Kurnool district of Andhra Pradesh has forced the state government to declare that there would be no exploration for uranium in this area. However, the villagers want an Assembly resolution to be passed so that the issue of mining uranium can be put to rest once for all.
Their skepticism comes from the fact that the locals were kept completely unaware of the borewells dug in the Kappatralla Reserve Forest area to assess the availability of Uranium. S R Sarma, a resident of Kappatralla village, known for faction feuds said that there was almost no information in the public domain about the investigations by the Atomic Minerals Directorate for Exploration and Research (AMD) apart from a mention of boreholes and the possibility of finding higher-grade Uranium in a scientific paper published in 2019.
Also, a reply about exploring indigenous sources of Uranium in the Rajya Sabha mentioned Kappatralla among the areas where AMD had initiated exploration for Uranium.
As the reports of Uranium exploration in Kappatralla spread, there was a campaign by civil society to make people aware of the devastation caused by Uranium mining might wreck their lives and livelihoods. They need not look far but at the devastation faced by the villagers of Tummalapalle in neighbouring Kadapa district due to the contamination of groundwater through Uranium tailing ponds.
In this area where Uranium Corporation of India Limited continues to mine Uranium, there have been several protests by local communities who complain about battling health problems, low crop productivity and livestock problems.
In Kappatralla, the campaign by community members resulted in severe protests in Kurnool where people blocked the highway and refused to attend a meeting called by district authorities. The state government was concerned “Since it is an area dominated by factional politics and the local MLA belongs to YSRCP, the authorities did not want the protest to go on and endanger law and order,” said a local leader. The state government through the SP and DM announced that there would be no exploration of Uranium in Kappatralla.
According to a memo issued by the special chief secretary of Forest and Environment Department of the AP government “wherein the collector & district magistrate, Kurnool district, while stating uproar and agitation by the villages of Kappatralla and surrounding villages, have requested to issue necessary instructions on the processing of the subject proposal as the surrounding villagers … of the Devanakonda Mandal, Kurnool district is strongly agitating against drilling of 68 boreholes in Kappatralla RF, Gundlakonda beat, Pattikonda section, Adoni range … for prospecting of Uranium minerals and creating law and order problem in Devanakonda mandal of Kurnool district.
”The Principal Chief conservator of Forests( PCCF and Head of Forest Force (HoFF) is, therefore, requested not to take any further action on the processing of the proposal until further orders from the government.”
However, community leaders are now demanding that the state government adopt a resolution in the Assembly as the BRS did against Uranium mining in Nalgonda district in Telangana. “Right now, the state government has only asked to not process the proposal for the time being. The government should pass a resolution in the Assembly against any further exploration of Uranium and put the matter to rest,” said Sarma.