nashik the ongoing soil excavation near gangapur dam has not gone down well with environment activists and bird watches who fear that such activities will threaten the feathered creatures visiting the site though water resources department officials had earlier described the monthlong activity as desilting they have finally given in to the green guards insistence and agreed to visit the site and take necessary action bishwaroop raha president of the nature conservation society of nashik ncsn said desilting is not carried out far away from the banks the excavation of soil near the gangapur dam area is a threat to the nesting of birds and would also cause soil erosion all this will have a harmful effect on human beings as well as animals he added the craters are deep that we have noticed some objectionable activities there during bird watching we have seen boys and girls going inside the craters people also drink and throw bottles of liquor all over the place we have taken up the issue with the dam authorities prakash boraste who in charge of the gangapur dam said the environment activists have informed me about the issue but our powers are limited only till the dam area there are cameras installed in the area and nobody comes near the dam but we cant say what goes on in the backwaters we can file a police complaint only if the local people write to us about their objections i went to the location as soon as the activists informed me about it but did not find anybody there i will once again go and ask people for objections i will also talk to the police about patrolling the area volunteers of nashik first who visit the backwaters frequently said this was not desilting activity as the water resources department officials claim there is no silt around the dam silt is there only in junejuly and that too in the riverbed and no farmer is collecting the silt this activity has been going on before june and is a continuous process it is the removal of murum and one jcb machine and an earth mover are permanently stationed one can see trucks being loaded with excavated material said a volunteer of nashik first these craters cause accidents earlier we used to see so many birds on the river bank it used to be a big lawn this area has been totally abused after finishing with the digging in one place you can see it at the other place this causes disasters as well because the loose earth goes down to the water he added the executive engineer of the water resources department sunil bafna said we will inspect the site and take the necessary action if excavation is being done it is not right activists said grass on the edge of the lake is food for ducks and the mudflats on the shores of the dam provide food for shore birds they claimed that the habitat of