They say it threatened their livelihood

Somwarpet: A resolution towards the rejection of Dr. K. Kasturirangan Report on the Ecologically Sensitive Areas was accepted at a public meeting organised for the villagers of Kumaralli and Kothnalli in Somwarpet Taluk on Saturday. 

The meeting was convened by Kumaralli Villagers Association at Heggademane Shanthamallikarjunaswamy Temple where elected representatives and more than 100 villagers who own properties on the fringes of Western Ghats participated. 

People of the villages which have been included in the Report have opposed it. People’s representatives and farmer leaders claimed that if the Report is implemented, it will ruin their lives and urged the Government to scrap the same.

Space scientist Dr K. Kasturirangan, in his Report published in April 2013, declared 4,156 villages ?1,576 in Karnataka, 2,159 in Maharashtra, 135 in Tamil Nadu, 123 in Kerala, 99 in Goa and 64 in Gujarat?as Ecologically Sensitive Area (ESA) villages where environment-damaging activities including mining, quarrying, construction of thermal plants and highly-polluting industries and construction of buildings and towns have been banned. 

The villagers fear that their lands and coffee plantations would be taken away by the Government under the name of forest conservation. They opposed the Report saying it threatened their livelihood. “We have been hearing about the Kasturirangan Report, but we don’t know what it contains. Some people say villagers will be evacuated if it is accepted and others that no developmental work will be allowed. We are confused,” said a villager.

Reacting on the meeting, Madikeri MLA M.P. Appachu Ranjan clarified that the Kasturirangan Report will not be allowed to be implemented in its present form. “The State Government has already decided against the implementation of the Report and has conveyed it to the Centre,” he said. 

For the villagers, the Kasturirangan Report is the demon they must escape although they don’t even know what it says. Although the State Government has opposed the Report in its present form and submitted its suggestions on it, most villagers are sceptical about the Centre accepting its views. 

Local elected leaders alleged that Dr. Kasturirangan and his team have unscientifically earmarked the boundaries. Villagers have been involved in agriculture and horticulture for generations and the Report does not permit the use of chemical fertilisers, and it is not possible to survive by just organic farming, they argued. 

People are not against the conservation of Western Ghats but the Report had been prepared merely on the basis of satellite images. Those preparing the Report had not visited the villages or taken the opinions of the people. It is essential to see that the recommendations of the Committee were implemented in such a manner that it did not create any problems for the farmers and workers living in the Western Ghats, they said. 

Former MLC S.G. Medappa, Temple Committee President T.P. Chengappa, Taluk Panchayat Vice-President M.B Abhimanyukumar, Member Dharmappa and others were present.