The Karnataka High Court on Tuesday ordered issue of notices to the State government and Sadguru Jaggi Vasudev of Isha Foundation,. Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu, on a PIL petition seeking a direction to the State government to examine the Foundation’s ‘Cauvery Calling’ project aimed to save the Cauvery.
A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Abhay Shreeniwas Oka and Justice Mohammad Nawaz passed the order on the petition filed by A.V. Amaranathan, a city-based advocate.
The petitioner has questioned how the government can allow its land to be used for planting saplings by a private organisation, which is raising donation from the public, without studying the pros and cons of the project initiated by the foundation.
Pointing out that the foundation has a target of planting 253 crore saplings on the Cauvery basin, from Talacauvery in Karnataka to Thiruvarur in Tamil Nadu by collecting a donation of ₹42 per sapling from the public donor, the petitioner claimed that “collection of money from public is disturbing” as the foundation is expected to collect a whopping ₹10, 626 crore as donation.
Questioning whether a private organisation can be allowed to collect money from the public to plant sapplings on public land, the petitioner pointed out that several public personalities had spent money from their pockets to do public good like ‘Saalumarada’ Thimmakka, who planted several trees using her own income in Karnataka, and Jadav Payeng, who created several hectares of forest single-handedly in north India.