Year after year, season after season, election after election, the preservation of the Palar finds mention. However, nothing much happens save for the level of pollution and exploitation by sand miners.

This was the collective opinion expressed by farmers of Vellore district, who are wholly dependent on the river for irrigation.

The river is also the principle source of drinking water for the district.

Further deprivation

With the district already reeling under an acute water shortage and drought-like conditions, the farmers feel further deprived of their basic agricultural needs in regions like Ambur, Vaniyambadi, Pernambut and Tirupattur.

A. Kathiresan, a third generation farmer from Ambur, said that the groundwater gets polluted as the untreated waste is spread across the primary stream of the Palar in Ambur.

When there is no rain in the upper Palar basin, the untreated industrial effluents result in polluted water reaching Ambur, he pointed out.

Palar Protection Committee president A.C. Venkatesan said, “We approached all the political parties, with a plea for taking steps to connect the upper Palar basin the proposed Godavari-Cauvery river linking scheme, but all our voices have gone unheeded. With no water in the river for most of the year, agricultural activities to the extent of one lakh hectares have been wiped out,” he said.

Rampant illegal mining

He was surprised that the district administration was silent on the illegal sand mining activities.

Though they claim it has been restricted by the additional monitoring force, it has been running rampant for years now, he alleged.