Activists have questioned supporters of kambala for keeping mum over shrinking paddy fields in Dakshina Kannada and Udupi districts.
In the rural sport, buffaloes are made to run on slush tracks created on paddy fields.
Muneer Katipalla, president, State unit of the Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI), alleged that some of the owners of kambala buffaloes were acting as real estate brokers for selling paddy fields.
“On the one hand, they lobby for kambala. But on the other, they are brokers for real estate agents making farmers sell their paddy fields,” he alleged, adding that it exposed their dual stand.
‘Shrunk by 22%’
Senior officials in the Agriculture Department told The Hindu that paddy fields in the two districts have shrunk by 22% in a decade due to various factors.
If the area in Dakshina Kannada district shrunk from 38,000 hectares (ha) to 28,700 ha, during the last 10 years, the area in Udupi district has reduced from 62,290 ha to 49,805 ha.
In addition, about 8,000 ha of paddy fields in both the districts together have been left uncultivated.
Shashidhar Shetty, a green activist, said that propagators of kambala should realise that paddy fields would get water only if the Yettinahole diversion project or Netravati diversion project was stopped. “Let them first fight to save Netravati and later for kambala,” he said.
