Sahyadri Sanchaya, a registered body of green activists that has been fighting against the Yettinahole project, claimed here on Tuesday that the State government was now planning to divert water from nine tributaries of the Netravathi to the parched districts at an estimated cost of ₹60,000 crore.
At a Meet-the-Press programme organised by the Dakshina Kannada Union of Working Journalists on water issues, Dinesh Holla, convener of the sanchaya, said the State government has now realised that the Yettinahole project will not yield 24 tmcft of water for diverting to dry districts of Chickballapur and Kolar as projected by the government earlier. Hence, the government is now planning to lift water from the nine tributaries based on the G.S. Paramashivaiah Committee report. The tributaries are in between the Kudremukh Range and Pushpagiri Range in the Western Ghats.
If the government goes ahead with it, also called as ‘garland project’, Dakshina Kannada, specifically the Netravathi will completely dry up, he said.
Shreesha M.J., a rainwater harvester and Sanskrit teacher at Vivekananda College, Puttur, suggested that small vented dams should be built along the Netravathi to mitigate water crisis in Dakshina Kannada.
While doing so, the dams should not be built along the course of the river in the ghat belt. They should be built only after the river enters the main land in the district, he said.
Narendra Rai Derla, a college teacher and writer, said that usage of water by people has increased now.
