‘Lay a road or move our village out of district’

Residents of Elaneer village in Dakshina Kannada, have to travel 112 km to reach Mangaluru, the district headquarters

March 11, 2017 07:10 am | Updated 07:10 am IST - ELANEER (BELTHANGADY TALUK)

Only four-wheel drives can traverse the road from Didupe to Elaneer. The road cannot be developed as it passes through the Kudremukh National Park.

Only four-wheel drives can traverse the road from Didupe to Elaneer. The road cannot be developed as it passes through the Kudremukh National Park.

Elaneer, a village atop the Western Ghats in Dakshina Kannada, but closer to Kalasa hobli of Chikkamagaluru district, is bestowed with the best of natural resources. The residents, however, are not a happy lot.

Not surprising, considering that they have to travel at least 120 km to reach the gram panchayat office at Malavanthige, 92 km to reach the taluk headquarters of Belthangady, and 112 km to the district headquarters of Mangaluru, all downhill.

Inhabited by 682 residents whose primary avocation is agriculture, Elaneer is connected to Didupe–Malavanthige through an 11-km kutcha road passing through the Kudremukh National Park (KNP) with steep descent. Since the road is within KNP, it cannot be developed. Only four-wheel drive vehicles can traverse this road during non-monsoon period, and people hire Jeeps by paying over ₹1,000 a trip.

For all practical purposes, including education, healthcare and commercial activities, Elaneer residents depend upon Samse village, which is close by, and Kalasa town (10 km away), both in Mudigere taluk (67 km) of Chikkamagaluru district (94 km). Why not make the village part of Chikkamagaluru then, is the question posed by residents.

K.Y. Rajkumar, 67, an agriculturist residing within the limits of KNP at Elaneer, said they would be happy if the 11-km kutcha road was made an all-weather road. It would also reduce the distance between popular pilgrimage centres Dharmasthala and Horanadu, and surrounding areas. Mruthyunjaya, another resident, said the previous Deputy Commissioner A.B. Ibrahim had thought of redrawing the district boundary by annexing Elaneer to Chikkamagaluru district. Since the taluk headquarters of Mudigere is far away, the idea was dropped. “If Kalasa is made the taluk headquarters, demand for which is pending for long, we are ready to go with Chikkamagaluru,” Mr. Rajkumar said. S.M. Tulupule, former president of the Malavanthige Gram Panchayat, recalled that the kutcha road was developed in 1982 by a timber merchant from Moodbidri.

However, environmentalists and officials argue that permission to make the Didupe-Elaneer kutcha road an all-weather road would trigger similar demands across the region and country where stiff wildlife laws have prevented further erosion of forest cover.

Ashoka Vardhana, a conservationist, said the forest cover between uphill and downhill of the ghats had waned drastically after Independence. It would prompt similar demands for Aranthod–Karike, Sampaje–Subrahmanya, Galibeedu–Subrahmanya, Somwarpet–Subrahmanya, Shishila–Byrapura, Kakkinje–Kottigehara, and Ajekar–Kerekatte roads in this region alone.

A senior official with the Public Works Department said the Supreme Court would be flooded with similar applications from across the country in such a case. Mr. Vardhana said the solution lies in redrawing the boundaries to bring the village under the nearest district headquarters.

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