THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Alleging that the Government and the Tourism Department are not giving due attention to the Veli and Akkulam tourist spots, the Veli Vikasana Janakeeya Karma Samithi has urged Chief Minister Oommen Chandy and Union Minister for Environment and Forests Jayanthi Natarajan to take immediate action in this regard.In a petition, the action council demanded that Veli and Akkulam tourist destinations be made dirt-free. The Committee said that the lakes have turned into the trash dumps of the city and chemical effluents from industrial units threaten marine resources. Besides, the thick cover of water hyacinths and other weeds in the lakes causes intense hardships to tourists.According to the arguments of the Samithi, the huge pipe that juts out from the Travancore Titanium Products and has been ejecting hazardous chemicals such as sulphuric acid into the sea for the past few years is installed close to the Veli ‘pozhi’. This has raised serious threat to fish population near the Kochu Veli, Valiya Veli, Vettucaud and Kannanthura regions. Several instances have come to light where fish population in these water bodies had died off in large numbers due to increasing amount of poisonous chemicals and the consequent reduction in oxygen levels. People who consume the fish caught from this region are likely to be susceptible to serious health hazards, the committee alleged.Under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM), the Department of Urban Engineering is assigned the task of creating an estuary at Veli. As a result of tidal waves and the flow of current, the garbage flows in a large amount from south to north from Kovalam to Perumathura. The committee says that the sea would thus become a place for dumping garbage. The dwindling population of marine fish may badly affect the livelihood of fisherfolk in these areas.
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