The demarcation of the inter-State border between Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh in Bellari Reserve Forest has yet again been challenged by Tapal Ekambaram, a petitioner in the Supreme Court.
The exercise was completed on ground by the Survey of India officials in the presence of officers from Revenue and State Survey, Mining and Geology, as well as Forest Department officials over the past six months.
During the last month, a drone was flown to get the geo-coordinates of the 72 newly demarcated and installed border stones and the digitisation process was on.
On Tuesday, Mr. Ekambaram, one of the petitioners in the Supreme Court on behalf of the mining leaseholders in that area, wrote a letter to the Survey of India, challenging the official communication from the Deputy Director Pradeep Singh to him on Monday that the inter-State border was conclusively approved by the Supreme Court and the process of demarcation was being done. Mr. Ekambaram was a petitioner in the WP: 562/2009 in the Supreme Court on this issue.
Mr. Ekambaram has pointed out that the Tri-Junction point, which was blasted in the past has been changed from its original place in the current demarcation process and instead of it being on the highest point of a hillock, it has gone into the valley at the ‘Chicken Neck’ portion of the map. He said that with the help of a drone and existing village maps of Tumti, Siddapura, Vittalpuram, and Mlpangudi the contours should have been followed, but on the ground, it had deviated.
“The inter-State boundary cannot be different from the pre-Independence village boundaries and maps on both sides — Andhra and Karnataka,” he said and requested the Survey of India to follow the 1890 contour map so that the BHQ Ridge Tri-junction and RMK2/35 geo referred tri-junction would tally.
