Kambalakonda Park To Undergo Redevelopment

Located along NH16 is the beautiful wildlife sanctuary of Kambalakonda. This dry evergreen woods is a part of a reserve forest that has an abundance of wildlife wandering the forest and its surrounding landscapes.

Kambalakonda is now set to be redeveloped with a Rs 12 crore funding from the World Bank. Coming under the Andhra Pradesh Disaster Recovery Project, the redevelopment of Kambalakonda is to be done without tampering the existing eco-system there. Hudhud had an adverse effect on the eco-park, causing damage to the rare flora and fauna found here. It is not just the flora and fauna that is being paid attention to, heed is also being paid to protecting the livelihood of those communities that surround Kambalakonda. 10.77 hectares of the 7,139 hectare Kambalakonda sanctuary come under community based eco-tourism and comprise of a total of 30 villages.

P V Ramesh, Special Chief Secretary to the AP Government called Vizag one of the fastest growing cities and said a balance must be met between the interests of the stakeholders, development and conservation. S B L Mishra, Principal Chief Conservator of Forests talked of the plans to develop bird sanctuaries and eco-parks as a major tourist attractions. N Prateep Kumar, additional Principal Chief Conservator of Forests of AP said that re-development should be based on not compromising the uniqueness of the forest, keeping in mind the implications of the proposed plans.

Some of the developments proposed by the AP Forest Department include reconstruction of the watch tower and construction of a new one on either side of the hillock, installation of fire watch towers and a two-way river crossing system at Degalagedda Reservoir, cycling facilities, morning walkers’ tracks, three trek paths connecting to a tribal village in Sambhuvanipalem, butterfly and children’s park, bio-information centre, water harvesting trenches and more.