Personnel from the Mysuru Division of South Western Railway at work on the Hassan-Mangaluru line, close to Kadagaravalli, Karnataka, on July 28, 2024.
| Picture Credit score: By Particular Association
In a Cupboard resolution on September 27, the Karnataka authorities rejected the report on the Western Ghats ready by a 10-member Excessive-Degree Working Group led by house scientist Ok. Kasturirangan. For the reason that submission of the report in 2013, six draft notifications on the proposed declaration of Eco-Delicate Areas (ESAs) have been issued by the Union Ministry of Atmosphere, Forest and Local weather Change, to States by means of which the Western Ghats run.
All six notifications, together with the newest one, which was issued on July 31, a day after the devastating landslides in Wayanad occurred, have been rejected by Karnataka. The announcement was made by Legislation and Parliamentary Affairs Minister H.Ok. Patil, who mentioned that the Cupboard resolution was taken after contemplating opposition from legislators representing constituencies in 10 hilly districts of western Karnataka by means of which the Western Ghats cross.
The Kasturirangan report proposed to establish 37 per cent of the Western Ghats as environmentally delicate. In Karnataka this could imply that 20,668 sqkm can be demarcated as an ESA. Actions equivalent to mining and quarrying can be prohibited; and different developmental actions, equivalent to giant constructions and highway constructing, curtailed.Contemplating that this could have an effect on developmental works in 1,576 villages,villagers and politicians from the world opposed the suggestions.
Additionally Learn | Wayanad landslides: When nature rewrote the map
Earlier than this declaration, the Karnataka forest division had organised a session on September 19 to solicit the opinions of MLAs and MPs representing constituencies positioned within the Western Ghats area of the State. Khandre, who presided over this session, even proposed to chop down the ESA of Karnataka from 20,668 sqkm to 16,114 sqkm and guaranteed political representatives that the State authorities would demand a particular financial package deal from the Union authorities to offset any losses to the folks of the area as soon as the suggestions of the Kasturirangan report have been applied; however even this didn’t lower any ice with the politicians, who, throughout political traces, refused to endorse the Kasturirangan report.
Nayana Motamma, MLA of Mudigere, which a constituency positioned within the sylvan hills of Chikkamagaluru district, was one of many MLAs who voiced her objection at this assembly. Chatting with Frontline, Motamma justified her stand: “…since folks’s livelihoods in my constituency are primarily based on plantation and agricultural actions, we can’t be burdened with any additional restrictions from the forest division. If these guidelines are applied creating buffer zones in components of my constituency, that may imply a number of actions can be curtailed,” she mentioned. “As it’s, the forest division doesn’t permit us to fell aged timber by the roadside which is a hazard through the monsoons. If the report is applied, the forest division will get a free hand to restrain many actions on which livelihoods rely. Even authorities actions equivalent to constructing colleges, anganwadis, formation of web sites are already restricted.”
The Karnataka authorities rejected the report on the Western Ghats ready by a 10-member Excessive-Degree Working Group led by house scientist Ok. Kasturirangan.
| Picture Credit score:
MURALI KUMAR Ok
Madhav Gadgil, the famous ecologist who headed the Western Ghats Ecology Knowledgeable Panel,had beneficial that 75 per cent of the 1,29,037 sq km space of the Western Ghats operating by means of Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Goa, Maharashtra, and Gujarat be declared as an ESA due to its forest cowl and distinctive endemic species.
Gadgil’s report (submitted in 2011) preceded the Kasturirangan Report. Vittal Hegde, an environmentalist and farmer primarily based in Sringeri in Chikkamaggaluru district mentioned: “After the landslides that came about in Wayanad and Shirur (in Karnataka), an uproar started that if the Gadgil and Kasturirangan stories had been applied such pure disasters wouldn’t have taken place. There are additionally pure causes for these disasters and it’s a blatant lie that the implementation of the Gadgil or Kasturirangan stories would have averted such pure calamities. These stories will solely alienate the folks of the Western Ghats from the trajectory of improvement and result in their eviction.”
Madhav Gadgil, the famous ecologist who headed the Western Ghats Ecology Knowledgeable Panel.
| Picture Credit score:
Leju Kamal
Some nonetheless, are dismayed by the Karnataka cupboard’s resolution to reject the Kasturirangan report. Akhilesh Chippali, a farmer and environmentalist who lives in a village near Sagar mentioned: “If the delicate setting of the Western Ghats have to be protected for future generations, the federal government should take mandatory steps. A number of of us have been demanding that the suggestions of the Gadgil report must be applied. Although Kasturirangan watered down most issues of Gadgil expressed, its implementation will a minimum of be a begin to protect the pristine setting of this area that’s already below risk from huge infrastructural initiatives.”
Chippali gave the instance of the Sharavathi Pumped Storage Undertaking, which envisages a hydroelectricity mission on the Sharavathi river system in Shivamogga and Uttara Kannada districts. The mission has been given the inexperienced flag by the Union authorities and the Central Electrical energy Authority however many environmentalists contend that this may have an effect on the forests of the Sharavathi Wildlife Sanctuary, house to the endangered lion-tailed macaque. “If the Kasturirangan report had been applied, such giant infrastructural initiatives couldn’t have been permitted,” mentioned Chippali.
Additionally Learn | ‘Forest division mentioned practically 1 lakh timber can be lower if license for mining got for Sandur forests’: B.Ok. Dikshit
Whereas Karnataka has rejected the draft notification of the Kasturirangan report in toto, Kerala has responded to the notification by requesting the Union authorities’s professional committee to drop residential areas from the ESA zones. It’s unclear what the opposite State governments will determine though the previous 5 draft notifications on the declaration of ESAs have been met with outright rejections or counter proposals, which diluted the world that comes below the ESA zones.
After the Wayanad tragedy, some environmentalists in Karnataka urged the State authorities to implement the Kasturirangan report. In a transfer to assuage their sentiments, Forest Minister Khandre appointed a particular job pressure on August 2 to get well encroached forest land within the Western Ghats. However in accordance with environmental activist Joseph Hoover, whereas the intentions of Khandre are laudable, “…the officers on the bottom should not pushing this agenda forcefully.” Hoover added, “native politicians are additionally triggering protests towards the forest division by farmers within the area, which is delaying the complete course of. For this reason this mission is caught.”
