Residents of areas in the district identified as Ecological Sensitive Areas (ESAs) in the K. Kasturirangan panel report on conservation of the Western Ghats have decided to intensity their struggle to pressurise the Union and State governments to reject the report in total.
It may be mentioned here that a total of 472 such zones in the district fall under ESA in the draft notification issued by the Union government on the report in September 2015 and on February 27 this year. Farmers from these villages had staged a protest under the aegis of Zilla Raithara Sahakara Horata Samiti in Shivamogga on March 15 demanding an outright rejection of the report.
18-day padayatra
R.M. Manjunatha Gowda, president of the Samiti, said that in the next phase of the protest, an 18-day padayatra would be taken out beginning from Sigandur village on March 28. The padayatra would pass through these 472 villages.
Awareness programmes on the socio-economic impact of the report would be held in each village as part of the padayatra, he said.
In the field verification and public consultation meetings conducted by the government in the district, the farmers and elected representatives had vehemently registered their opposition to the report. It is unfortunate that, by showing disregard for public opinion, it has been proposed to declare the 472 areas as ESA. The public consultation meetings were held in many villages without furnishing a copy of the report to the local people in Kannada, he said.
‘No development’
Mr. Gowda said that the ESA status would keep these villages out of bounds of developmental activities. The restrictions would be imposed on the implementation of works related to the upgrading of civic amenities in ESAs and on lifting sand from rivers for domestic and community work.
The tribal communities would be forced to forfeit the rights such as collecting minor forest produce.
Also, the conferring title deeds to farmers engaged in cultivation of forest land under the Forest Rights Act, 2006, would be barred, he said.
Debate sought
Meanwhile, the Zilla Adike Belegarara Sangha, an organisation of arecanut growers, has demanded that MPs from the Western Ghats region in Karnataka initiate a detailed debate on the report in the Parliament.
B.A. Ramesh Hegde, president of the Sangha, has said that a major chunk of MPs from Western Ghats region in Karnataka, including Shivamogga MP B.S. Yeddyurappa, had not attended the meeting convened by Ministry of Environment and Forest in August 2016 for a discussion on the report. The MPs from Karnataka should apprise the Centre on the problems the people would face if the ESA status is accorded to villages and urge the total rejection of the report. The Sangha would convene a convention of the farmers in the city shortly to pressurise the MPs in this regard, he said.
