The Chief Secretary, government of Andhra Pradesh who is also the Vice-Chairperson of the State Water, Land and Trees Authority, remains oblivious of violations of Water, Land & Trees Act, 2002 (A.P.WL&T Act 2002) taking place in respect of Biomass Power Plants set up in the state. These plants are supposed to make use of paddy husk, other agricultural wastes and non-woody plants available in the area, as feedstock for the power plants.

But the managements of many of the power plants set up in the state, are buying and collecting the wood logs on a large scale which as led to felling of trees on a massive scale. The shortage of paddy husk , appears to have increased the demand for the wood as feed stock.
The definition of ‘Tree’ is given in Section 2 (19) of the A.P.WL&T Act 2002 and the procedure for granting permission to fell trees is given in Rule 24 of A P WL&T Rules 2002.

The use of woody plants for providing feedstock to the biomass power plants goes against the very basic objective of setting them up and is in violation of the provisions of WL&T Act and Rules 2002. These power plants are indulging in over exploitation of ground water by digging deep bore wells.

The permission to fell trees is not being obtained from the authority concerned. Moreover once the use of wood is permitted as feed stock, be it 20 percent or percent, it is bound to be misused, as there is no effective mechanism to monitor and control the use. Therefore the use of wood by biomass power plants should be prohibited altogether, says Capt. J Rama Rao, an environmentalist based in Hyderabad.

He adds, there is an urgent to investigate and ensure strict implementation of the provisions of the Act in the right spirit and to restore confidence and faith of the public in “Rule of Law” and the state administration. This issue has been reported in the local media (VARTHA, and other Telugu daily news papers).

The managements of the many Plants seem to be justifying the use of wood, as they have been permitted to use Wood to an extent of 20 percent of the requirements.