VIZAG matters - Sohan Hatangadi's Blog

Vizag’s dirty secret Nallah nostalgia Storm water drains form naturally over time when rain water runs-off the land towards slopes. We also call them “nallahs” or “geddas”. Vizag has hillocks on three sides and a sea on one side. It is natural that all the rain water to gush quite quickly down the slopes and into the sea. Along the way the storm water gathered in some of the low lying areas forming natural reservoirs before making its way to the sea. Vizag always had an excellent natural storm water drainage system. A survey of India map of Vizag in 1929 shows that we had 31 km of storm water drains within the smaller Vizag at that time and 300 acres of water bodies that these storm water drains drained into. Fascinating ecosystem This system of natural storm water drains was an ecological wonderland. Tall grass grew all along the nallahs and played host to myriad creatures. At the bottom of the food chain were the worms, grasshoppers, mantis, tadpoles, frogs, snai...

CRZ is a much misunderstood law. Read this article to get an overview of the subject from Vizag's perspective. Just click this link. CRZ story: Battle to save coast The story as it appeared in the newspaper: In word document: CRZ story: Battle to save coast Sohan Hatangadi Dated: 23 April 2015 To appreciate the philosophy of CRZ let’s go back a few decades. When we were kids most of us lived in Vizag’s “Old Town” near Visakhapatnam Port Trust (VPT), we lived within a few hundred yards of the beach, and played on the beach and swam in the sea whenever we could. Hundreds of catamarans, boats made with just two pieces of wood, would sail out every morning with their white sails dotting the clear blue sea and come back every afternoon laden with fish. Some fishermen would spread their nets from the beach and haul in a bounty of assorted crabs, prawns and fish that would leap in the nets as they came ashore, sparkling in the sun like stainless steel springs. Some ...