With the State Board of Wildlife (SBW), which met on Monday, deferring the decision on declaring Kappatagudda in Gadag district as a “conservation reserve”, the ongoing tug-of-war between environmentalists seeking the tag and the mining lobby opposing it is set to get intense.
The board empowered Chief Minister Siddaramaiah to take a final call and he has sought additional documents related to Kappatagudda. The documents would be submitted to the Chief Minister within a couple of days and a final decision could be taken before the end of the week, according to sources.
“Mr. Siddaramaiah will decide on whether Kappatagudda be declared a conservation reserve or restricted forest reserve based on public sentiment,” said Forest Minister and vice-president of SBW Ramanath Rai. He said that there was no pressure from any quarters.
According to sources, Mr. Siddaramaiah was apprised of the negative environmental impact if the conservation status was not restored to Kappatagudda. However, senior IAS officers were in favour of gold mining in the area on the grounds that Karnataka was the only State where the precious mineral was found and hence were reluctant to restore the conservation tag.
Countering this, other members of the board spoke of arsenic poison and the pollution of waterbodies in the region as a direct fallout of such extraction and the imperatives of conservation in the dry belt.
It was then that the Chief Minister sought all documents pertaining to Kappatagudda from the officials for a detailed study.
Environmentalists and activists have been demanding restoration of the conservation reserve tag to Kappatagudda area. About 17,872 hectares of the reserve forest was declared as a conservation reserve in 2015. But the notification was withdrawn in 2016 as it was not preceded by public consultations as required by the law.
Subsequently, in the public hearing in January 2017, 249 applications were received of which 217 were in favour of restoring the status and only 32, including those representing the mining lobby, opposed it on the grounds that gold extraction would be hit.
