Environmentalists across the State have said that instead of building a golden chariot for Lord Subrahmanya at Kukke Subrahmanya, the State government should utilise the same funds to conserve the environment surrounding Kukke Subrahmanya so that generations to come will stand to benefit.

Several e-mail petitions have been sent to Chief Secretary in this regard by environmentalists under the guidance of National Environment Care Federation, Mangaluru, and its general secretary H. Sashidhar Shetty. Yuva Brigade volunteers had excavated tonnes of garbage, including hundreds of liquor bottles, from water bodies in Kukke Subrahmanya on Saturday and Sunday.

In their petitions, Mr. Shetty and others concerned over environment said that they came to know about Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy’s desire to move forward the proposal which had been put in cold storage after he demitted office in October 2007.

The signatories wondered about the rationale behind spending crores of rupees of public money for the project and also, later, a considerable amount of money for the safe custody of the golden chariot. The same funds could be utilised for cleaning the temple surroundings, they said and presented a list of demands connected to environment conservation in the region.

First and foremost, the Kumara Parvatha, source of the Kumaradhara river, should be protected to save the region and hence, the hillock should be declared protected forest. Encroachment upon the river’s origin and other eco-sensitive regions should be cleared and trekking to Kumara Parvatha should be banned, the activists said.

All towns on the banks of the Kumaradhara and the Netravathi should have proper underground drainage system with sewage treatment plants. They demanded that 75 m of river banks of the Netravathi, the Phalguni and their nine tributaries and the Kumaradhara should be declared buffer zone and tree saplings should be planted there.

Strict steps should be taken to prevent flow of human, animal, vehicular and industrial waste into the river system while illegal sand extraction should be prohibited. Encroached riverbeds should be cleared and unhindered path should be made created for these rivers. Liquor shops should compulsorily affix labels mentioning their name and licence number on liquor bottles sold by them and the government should take action against them if empty bottles are found in public places. Use of plastic in any form should be completely banned, the environmentalists demanded.