Mangaluru: Chairman of Karnataka Vriksha Laksha Andolana, a Karnataka based green campaign, Ananth Hegde Ashisar has complained to the Union Minister of Forests and Environment Dr. Harshvardhan that forests were degenerating rapidly in the state and suggested quick action to reverse the effect.
Ashisar and his associate member Narayana Hegde Gadikai of the Uttara Kannada District Parisara Samrakshana Samithi on October 11, met the Director General and Secretary of the Ministry of Environment and Forests Siddanth Das and presented a memorandum to him which elaborated the denudation and degeneration of forests on various counts.
He said Karnataka had recorded nearly 10 lakh hectares of Deemed Forest in 2002. But, due to wrong decision of the Government of Karnataka, it was drastically reduced to 5 lakh hectares in 2014-15, he alleged. “This region covers vast tract of rain forests, sacred groves, common lands, community lands, revenue forests etc. Such ecologically vital regions are thus being left out from the protective legal status of Deemed Forest. It would threaten the ecological safety and livelihood security of millions of the region. Therefore, we earnestly appeal to you kindly to take up this issue in priority and direct the state government not to reduce the Deemed Forest area”, he has pleaded in the memorandum.
“In all, 25,000 hectares of forest land was given to Mysore Paper Mills, Bhadravati in Karnataka, on lease thirty years ago for raising industrial plantation. But, this factory was shut down during 2016-17. Therefore, this leased forest land is not being maintained by anybody and so has become vulnerable to encroachment. This land has to be given back to the state government to take up development of forests”, he noted.
Ashisara said 1000 hectares of land was being given to granite mining in Shivapura village, near Navilugudda, in Tarikere taluk of Chikkamagalur district in Karnataka. “This land is an ecologically sensitive region as it is adjacent to the Bhadra Tiger Reserve. This region is rich in vegetation and wildlife too. This area has to be protected against mining and other destructive activities taken up by private and government departments”, he added.
“Deemed Forest Conversion issues are also looming large in the state-1000 hectares of Deemed Forest has been sanctioned to Agriculture University in Shivamogga in 2014-15. The government has done this despite the fact that enough revenue land is available for this purpose. Such a largesse and unnecessary conversion of forest land into non-forestry use, against the rules of the Forest Conservation Act, 1980, is opposed by all sections of the society”, he opined.
He said the government of Karnataka had allowed many mini dams to come up in the Western Ghats. “Several private agencies are being permitted to build mini hydroelectric dams in the perennial streams of Western Ghats and its foothills, like Ganeshpal in Uttara Kannada and Kumaradhara in Dakshina Kannada. The development projects in such an ecologically sensitive area would make a lot of damage. Further, while they take permission for one or two units, they will be situated in such locations that the ever-green cover of the region would be permanently lost for the project as well as for erection of line, construction of access roads, etc. We therefore, request you not to give permission to these projects in the heart of Western Ghats region of Karnataka”, reads the memorandum.
