Kalkuli Vittal Hegde, president of the Malenadu Hitarakshana Vedike, said on Friday that the implementation of the K. Kasturirangan Committee Report on Conservation of Western Ghats will affect a large number of people living in the Malenadu region of Chikkamagaluru and Udupi districts.
‘Passive governments’
Addressing presspersons here, Mr. Hegde said that the Committee on Government Assurances in the Rajya Sabha had stated that Goa, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Karnataka governments had been passive in restricting activities in the 56,000 sq.km of ecologically sensitive areas (ESA) in the Western Ghats.
It had stated that massive monsoon floods in Kerala and Kodagu in 2018 were a warning to these State governments to take immediate steps to demarcate the ESA in the Western Ghats.
Meanwhile, nearly 1.37 lakh acres of forests had been declared as ‘deemed forests’ in Chikkamagaluru district.
Both these measures posed a threat to people living in the forests.
No development work could be taken up in a 10-km radius of Kudremukh National Park (KNP). Since the KNP encompasses areas in Sringeri, Karkala, Horanadu, Belthangady, and other places, the people here will be affected.
The Kudremukh Wildlife Division had objected to widening of the national highway connecting Chikkamagaluru to the coastal region by four feet pointing at various forest protection laws. But this was leading to many road accidents.
‘People suffered’
The people of Malenadu had to suffer due to projects such as national park, reserve forests, biodiversity park, herbal forest, Project Tiger, ESA and other such projects conceived by “environmentalists living in foreign countries.”
“Shobha Karandlaje, Udupi-Chikkamagaluru MP, had not attended any meetings on these matters in New Delhi nor had she listened to the grievances of people for the last five years. Pramod Madhwaraj, Janata Dal (Secular) candidate for the constituency has listened to our grievances. We want Ms. Karandlaje to listen to our grievances at least now,” Mr. Hegde added.