Karnataka - Mysore   

NGOs make out a case against ropeway project

Special Correspondent

`Government has not made an environmental impact assessment'

MYSORE: Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) that are opposing the controversial ropeway project to the Chamundi Hills have raised issues that put a question mark on the long-term feasibility of the project.

The "Save Chamundi Betta" movement has received a fillip with the entry of Mysore Amateur Naturalists (MAN) and some educational institutions which have launched a signature campaign against the project.

Nitin, an activist of MAN and a student of environmental engineering at Sri Jayachamarajendra College of Engineering (SJCE), told The Hindu that any project that entailed ecological damage should be preceded by an environmental impact assessment (EIA) by a competent and independent body and this was stipulated by the law.

It was only after such an assessment a project could be cleared if it was found to be negative for environmental damage.

No public opinion taken

But in the case of the ropeway project, the Government neither sought public opinion nor conducted an EIA, and was pressing ahead with it. Even district in-charge Minister D.T. Jayakumar was supporting the project, he said. Apart from the erosion of green cover and destruction to the fragile ecosystem, the Chamundi Hills and its environment is a treasure trove of biodiversity and there is a case for its conservation. Many organisations, including MAN, have documented flora and fauna of the Chamundi Hills that only strengthens the case of environmentalists opposing the project.

A study on "Birds of Chamundi Hills" compiled by A. Shivaprakash, an amateur ornithologist from MAN, indicates that there are 137 species of birds some of which are either uncommon or categorised as globally threatened species.

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