Madikeri: Following fresh landslides reported at Madikeri in Kodagu district, there is an urgent need for a long-term environment mitigation policy, besides a halt on wanton destruction of the local environment.

Following the latest landslip in Madikeri town last week, the Kodagu district administration has decided to shift 13 families to safety, bringing the focus back on the ecological sensitivity of the region which has been ignored. This is the third consecutive year that the district is witnessing landslides.

A study by a team of experts from the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, has highlighted the dangers of the increased landslip if the current development trend is allowed to continue.

The findings are by T.V. Ramachandra, S. Vinay and S. Bharat of Energy and Wetlands Research Group, Centre for Ecological Sciences of Indian Institute of Science, and it has been published in a paper titled ‘Urban Dynamics in Coorg District, Karnataka’ in the ENVIS Technical Report.

The study assessed the land-use dynamics of the district and the results indicated that the built-up area has increased from 1.55 per cent to 2.69 per cent in three years from 2016 to 2019. Besides, the native vegetation cover including forest, scrub jungles, sacred groves have declined from 45.44 per cent of the land area to 44.46 per cent.

The other findings of the study also have environmental implications and it points out that the interior forest cover of the district had declined from 24 per cent to 22.23 per cent. The proposal of new layouts, resorts, highway expansions and linear projects will encourage higher land-use changes, according to the study.

It stated that the urbanisation process has led to chaotic growth in the region and called for determining the rate and trend of land-use conversion for devising a rational land use policy.

Based on the land use pattern for 2016 and 2019, the authors predicted the landscape dynamics for 2031, which indicated an increase in the built-up areas in Madikeri, Kushalnagar, Virajpet, Gonikoppal, and Somwarpet.

Also, the influence of road networks and tourism will encourage urbanisation along highways and identified Kodilpet, Suntikoppa, Hebbale, Madapura, Napoklu, Ammathi etc., as per the study.