Forest dept neglecting welfare of people

Mangalore Today News Network

Mangaluru, Sep 20, 2015 :  Addressing media on Sept 19, Yettinahole Yojane Virodhi Kanoonu Samara activist K N Somshekar  said that   Forest Department has disregarded the interest in relation to the violation of guidelines under Forest Act, pertaining to Yettinahole project, before the National Green Tribunal, said the activist. He complained that by maintaining silence on the violation, the Department had allowed the continuation of the project and written a death knell to the district. The Department should break its silence before the NGT and the protect the interest of the people, he demanded.  The Forest Department has failed to protect the interest of the forest and people of Dakshina Kannada.

The user agency – the Karnataka Neeravari Nigama Limited (KNNL) – has also violated the guidelines of the 4.4 issued under the Forest (Conservation) Act 1980. Proposal by the KNNL, seeking diversion of 18.32 hectares of forest land is devoid of truth and misleading as there is no clarity on the submergence of forest land in the backwaters of the weirs. The project cannot be approved in the ecologically sensitive areas of the Western Ghats identified by the Gadgil and Kasturirangan Committee Report on the conservation of the Ghats, he stressed.   He said that the project area is known as Elephant Corridor and hence no activities which would disturb the natural habitat of the elephants should be permitted. “If implemented, it will cause serious repercussions on ecology and will destroy forests in the catchments of the river. The Yettinahole project is nothing but a River Nethravathi and Kumaradhara project and politically motivated. The project has been conceived to give a political base to former chief minister Veerappa Moily. 

According to the Project report  the data is based on the Belthangady rain gauge station and not from the project site. In fact, the government has not conducted any expert study to ascertain the availability of water at Yettinahole. The report did not even make a study on the area to be submerged. The government and officials should come for a public debate and then allow the people of the region to take a final call on the Yettinahole project,” he added. “The storing of 24tmc water would be sufficient to submerge Mangaluru and Bengaluru. How then will they store the water?” he asked.

Somshekar said that there was illegality in the tender process. No global tender was invited for the project. There is no transparency in the entire tender process. “We will continue our legal fight till the State government drops the project. Our strategy is to get the project stopped and not to get temporary stay on the work at the project site. As Rs 12,000 crore will be spent on the project, it is a waste of public money,” he added.

Activist Yatiraj Tumakuru said the Chennai Bench of the National Green Tribunal has said that work on the Yettinahole project should not be taken up till forest clearance is obtained from the Union Ministry of Environment. The Bench will hear the plea on September 28. The KNNL has given an undertaking before the NGT that they will not take up the work on the forest and non forest area with pertaining to Yettinahole project till the hearing is complete, he said. Yathiraj had approached the Bench last month on ecological grounds of Yettinahole project.