Rajahmundry, Aug. 27: The AP High Court directed the Krishna district collector to stop the clearance of mangroves and mud flats at Polatitippa village of Machilipatnam mandal and asked the latter to send a detailed report on the development following a public interest litigation filed by former secretary of Government of India Dr E.A.S. Sarma recently. The Andhra Pradesh Industrial Infrastructure Corporation had taken up an operation to clear the thick growth of mangroves and mud flats at Politippa village for setting up a thermal power plant by a private firm Thermal Power Tech Corporation (India) Limited at survey No. 53/13 in about 1,500 acre land. Though the area falls under Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ)-1 limits, permission was accorded earlier to go ahead with the clearance of mangroves and mud flats. Sources maintain that the High Court was informed that the destruction of mangroves and mud flats for setting up the thermal power plant was true and mangrove forests in about 70 acres of land were destroyed based on physical evidence. Learning about the development, the High Court directed the Krishna district administration to immediately stop the destruction of mangroves and send a detailed report on the entire development in about three weeks time. However, the report from the district administration submitted to the High Court did not mention as to who destroyed the mangroves. Environmentalists maintain that destruction of mangrove forests in such vast areas is illegal and say that the destruction was taken up violating environmental laws. They demanded for fixing the responsibility upon those involved in destruction and punish them as per the norms. Some time ago, the ministry of environment and forests had asked the state governments to identify and notify the deemed forests in order to protect them but so far our government failed to comply with the recommendation. The forests officials maintain that they are not having adequate man power and financial support to man the existing reserve forest areas and sanctuaries and ask as to how they could take care of deemed forests. Moreover, areas having vast growth of vegetation are either in the occupation of revenue authorities or private parties and it should be the responsibility of the revenue authorities to issue notification considering a particular area to be a deemed forest and handover the responsibility to the forest authorities. Noted environmentalist Dr T. Patanjali Sastry said, "It is time the government should come out with clear guidelines to conserve and protest the ecologically sensitive areas to avoid illegal encroachment and also should implement the Centre's direction of identification and notification of deemed forests in the state."