Highways dept. begins demolition of boulder in Arunachala Hills

The State Highways Department has commenced the demolition of a huge boulder, which weighs around 15 tonnes, in Arunachala Hills near the Arunachaleswarar temple in Tiruvannamalai town to prevent any untoward incidents during monsoon.

Officials of State Highways, which is executing the work in coordination with Tiruvannamalai Corporation, said that the identified boulder in the hills is located just above residential area at the foothills.

The thickly populated area is VOC Nagar that comes under Ward 5 of the Corporation. “Demolition of boulders in the hills will be done using scientific methods. Once the huge rock is cracked, it will be broken into small pieces to remove it from the hills. The entire work will be completed in a week,” S. Anbarasu, Assistant Executive Engineer (AEE), State Highways, told The Hindu.

The demolition work comes after Collector K. Tharpagaraj inspected the foothills to assess the condition of the rocky terrain. He directed civic officials to take precautionary measures to prevent landslides in the hills. On December 1, 2024, seven persons died in the hills after Cyclone Fengal triggered a landslide.

Highways officials said that after the landslide incident, a huge boulder, which weighed around 40 tonnes, was removed from the site where human lives were lost. Subsequently, breast walls were built at identified spots in the hills where terrain has loose soil. These walls have several holes to allow excess rainwater from the hills to get discharged into nearby lakes.

As the temple town is witnessing continuous rains, Highways officials have begun to demolish the identified boulder. “Alternative accommodation for residents at the foothills should be provided to sustain their livelihood. Despite the landslide, residents still stay in crumbled houses at the foothills,” said V. Ramesh, a resident.

Forest officials said that the Arunachala Hills comes under Adi Annamalai Reserve Forest with over 900 hectares, spread at nine kms radius. The hill is located at 2,668 feet-high from the sea level where fire lit atop the hillock as part of Maha Deepam festival every year. Land around foothills to a distance of six kms belongs to the revenue department while remaining area in the hills are forests.