After the debacle it faced during the public hearing on restoration of ‘conservation reserve’ tag for Kappatagudda, the mining lobby appears to have employed “indirect ways” to influence the Chief Minister, who is also chairman of the State Wildlife Board, allege activists.
What has irked environmentalists and wildlife activists is that despite a majority of the participants at the public hearing held in January favouring conservation reserve tag for Kappatagudda, there has been delay in taking a decision. It was only after scores of organisations, led by Sri Siddhalinga Swami of Tontadarya Mutt, held a three-day dharna that the government was forced to announce that they would take an appropriate decision at the State Wildlife Board meeting on February 20.
Public hearing
In the public hearing held at Dambal village in Gadag district on January 16, 247 submissions were made to Deputy Commissioner of Gadag Manoj Jain. Of them, over 210 submissions were in favour of conservation reserve tag.
However, after the hearing, around 15 organisations sent letters opposing the tag. Activists believe that some of these organisations are just “letter head organisations” created to support the mining lobby.
Their concern is that these letters should not form the basis for deferring decision on the issue.
Recently, some organisations in Gadag were shocked to find press releases in their names welcoming the withdrawal of notification on Kappatagudda. They clarified later that their letter heads were misused by vested interests and subsequently extended support to the ‘Save Kappatagudda’ campaign.
Meanwhile, Ramgad Minerals Private Ltd. (RMML), which earlier made its submission during the public hearing, submitted a memorandum to the State Wildlife Board in Bengaluru on Saturday (two days ahead of the board meeting) complaining of technical flaws in conducting the public hearing and alleging that it was not conducted in an impartial manner.
