The State government’s recent decision to withdraw its own notification of 2015, which declared Kappatagudda near here as a conservation reserve, has prepared the ground for yet another agitation to save this “treasure trove of biodiversity”.
Besides environmental activists, whose long battle led to the place being declared a reserve, even seers of prominent Lingayat mutts in and around Gadag are miffed by the government’s about-turn.
Second U-turn
This is the second time that the Congress government has gone back on its decision on conservation of Kappatagudda forest. Interestingly, on both occasions, the reason attributed was that of opposition from the local people and the impact on livelihoods. That there was no public consultation before declaring it a reserve has now been cited as the reason for withdrawing the notification.
The mining lobby has consistently been opposing Kappatagudda being declared a reserve because it is rich in mineral resources. Attempts to exploit it have been opposed by the environmental activists as well as heads of some Lingayat mutts in the region. This, in fact, succeeded in staving off mining in the region during the mining boom.
Interestingly, of the four blocks of Kappatagudda proposed for conservation, three were dropped in January 2014, and then much to the shock of environmentalists the government declared on May 27, 2014, that the proposal had been dropped entirely.
That was when environmentalists and seers like Tontada Siddhalinga Swami of Gadag Tontadarya Mutt and Annadanishwara Swami of Mundaragi mounted pressure on the government to declare it a reserve. It finally resulted in the Karnataka State Board of Wildlife clearing the proposal to declare 17,872 hectares of the reserve forest of Kappatagudda as conservation reserve under Section 36A of Wildlife Protection Act, 1972, in 2015.
And now, the government has shocked the environmentalists and the seers by deciding to withdraw the earlier notification. While some officials said that a “modified notification” will be issued, there is no clarity as yet.
The reply given to Basavaraj Horatti, MLC, at the ongoing legislature session in Belagavi was that the 2015 notification was withdrawn on November 4.
At a recent public meeting in Gadag, Siddhalinga Swami of Tontadarya Mutt said he had “a one-point demand” — to retain the conservation reserve tag of Kappatagudda. With the Chief Minister assuring to reconsider it, they have decided to wait for awhile before launching yet another protest.
