Kakinada: Panel to probe mangrove destruction

Kakinada: The National Green Tribunal (NGT), comprising judicial member Justice K Ramakrishnan and the expert member Saibal Dasgupta appointed a committee to ascertain the facts on mangrove destruction for distribution of house sites for homeless urban poor in Kakinada.

The panel would go into the question as to whether the area is a mangrove forest subject to the provisions of coastal regulation zone notifications 2011 and 2019.

The mangroves were destructed and the land was levelled, despite the environmentalists alerting Collector D Muralidhar Reddy and District Forest Officer Nandani Salaria and works were going on.

Meanwhile, a social activist B Satyanarayana of Visakhapatnam filed a petition before the NGT.