Even as work on Andhra’s Polavaram dam has gathered speed, another rare animal species is under threat due to the irrigation project.
According to reports, the stripenecked mongoose, discovered in the Papikonda hills earlier this year, may never be seen again in the area, after the completion of the project.
The Times of India reported that the animal was photographed with the help of camera trappings and also sighted at the Papikonda sanctuary, before adding that the animal may lose its new habitat even before researchers could fully study it.
The report also adds that the animal was featured in the latest issue of the ‘Journal of Threatened Taxa’ on December 26, the same day that the state received funds from the Centre for the project.
This comes shortly after reports that a 10,000-year-old megalithic burial site with around 100 graves which was discovered in East Godavari district, would be inundated before archaeologists can study them thoroughly, along with several historical sites.
In its present form, the multi-purpose irrigation project, has an assessed command area of 2.91 lakh hectares and a power generation potential of 960 MW.
However, that area is going to submerge 276 villages in Andhra Pradesh, four villages in Chhattisgarh and eight villages in Odisha, while an area of 3427.52 hectares of forest land is projected to be inundated.