Oil and gas exploration in the Krishna Godavari basin will not harm the environment

By S A Ishaqui
Hyderabad, April 28 : Oil and gas exploration in the KrishnaGodavari basin will not harm the environment or disturb the ecological balance in the region, the Centre informed the AP High Court.

Mr Kishor Kumar Darad, environment head in the Directorate-General of Hydrocarbons, argued in his counter that the anticipated sinking of land due to exploration in the Krishna-Godavari basin was neither directly nor remotely related to the extraction of oil resources from the basin.

He told the court that there was no evidence of such an instance anywhere in the world. The HC had earlier issued a notice to the Centre to file its counter on a petition submitted by the Krishna Godavari Deltala Parirakshana Samiti seeking a direction to take appropriate steps to protect the region from land subsidence and environmental hazards due to exploration.

Mr Darad said in his counter: “Extraction of ground water on a massive scale is mainly responsible for sinking of land the world over.”

Mr A. Rajasekhar Reddy, the assistant solicitor-general, said that so far there was no case of major land subsidence in the country due to exploration of oil and natural gas.

Mr Darad told the court that the Central Mining Research Institute and a team from the civil engineering department of IIT Mumbai conducted a detailed investigation in the basin on alleged subsidence due to exploration.