Activist’s plea to stop destruction of geo heritage park EMD

Visakhapatnam: Noted social activist and former IAS officer EAS Sarma on Wednesday appealed to the State Government to immediately stop unauthorised constructions at the Erra Matti Dibbalu (EMD), a GSI notified Geo Heritage Park near 17th century Dutch township of Bheemilipatnam.

In a letter to Chief Secretary Neerabh Kumar Prasad, he said with anguish he is conveying the attempts for wholesale destruction activity that is going on at present at EMD, a rare natural feature that the people of Visakhapatnam are proud of.

He said “I have requested the district collector to order a stoppage of the excavation work, pending a detailed survey and examining the possible alternatives available to save the feature for posterity.”

EMD is a unique geo-heritage site on Visakha-Bheemili road in Visakhapatnam district. It is a natural feature of importance from the point of view of its unique geology, it has evidence of a prehistoric human settlement and its environmental value. It is a heritage that belongs to the people, which is expected to be conserved in its pristine condition by the government as a “public trustee’ in terms of Article 49 of the Constitution but allowed to be deliberately and callously destroyed as a result of collusion among public functionaries and real estate developers during the last several decades, he bemoaned.