Madikeri: In an appeal to the people to resist highways and rail lines passing through Kodagu that will ultimately result in drying up of River Cauvery, former President of Coorg Wildlife Society Col. (Retd.) C.P. Muthanna said that people must support environmentalists who are fighting for the cause of Kodagu district and for the larger interests of people living in cities like Mysuru and Bengaluru.
Addressing a press conference in Madikeri yesterday, Muthanna, who is also the Convenor of Save Kodagu and Save Cauvery movement, said that even as the man-animal conflict has reached its worst phase in Kodagu where human lives are lost almost every day due to this kind of projects that destroyed the forests, politicians are hell bent on bringing projects like four-lane highways and Railway lines to facilitate connectivity at the cost of environment.
Noting that tiger menace has turned severe of late, he said the main reason for this is deforestation. “Today there is a situation where people are scared to venture out of their homes and there are no workers in estates even during prime coffee and pepper seasons,” he said.
More destruction on cards
“Huge deforestation was done near Harangi Dam and Chiklihole Dam for the Karike Hydro Electricity Project and lakhs of healthy fully grown trees were chopped in South Kodagu for the Mysuru-Kozhikode high-tension power line. Added to the destruction, a four-lane highway is being built from Mysuru to Kushalnagar, a Railway line is being brought to Kushalnagar with grand plans of extending it up to Mangaluru to connect Kerala. A National Highway connecting Chennarayapattanna in Hassan to Kerala via Kodlipet and Madikeri to Makutta has been planned and this will spell doom for the tiny district,” Muthanna said.
“Earlier when many destructive projects were sanctioned including the Mysuru-Kozhikode high-tension power line, we could not prevent them due to lack of political support. MP Pratap Simha did not support the cause of the protection of forests. His own party MLAs from Kodagu K.G. Bopaiah and M.P. Appachu Ranjan must convince the MP not to destroy Kodagu further and use his good offices to drop the Hassan-Kerala Highway,” he appealed.
Major (Retd.) Biddanda Nanjappa from Field Marshal Cariappa and General Thimayya Forum, Sanju Somanna, Kaveri Sene President Ravi Chengappa and Shaan Bopaiah were present at the press meet.
This post was published on March 17, 2022 6:40 pm