When the Andhra Pradesh government handed over 900 acres of a wetland or beela in Srikakulam district to a construction company to build a thermal plant, it was the soft-spoken local physician, Dr Yaradi Krishna Murty who became the guiding spirit of the agitation to stop the project.
The wetland was listed as a wasteland. The panchayat’s approval had not been sought. Farmers would lose their land. The beela was an inseparable part of their lives. It provided water for two paddy crops, fish and grasses.
The farmers held their ground. . .
