A report by the technical team of The Institution of Engineers (India), Mysuru Local Centre, has identified man-made interventions like road construction and property development, besides the extremely heavy and prolonged rainfall, as causes for the recent destruction in Kodagu.
“Deforestation has been happening over the decades due to human incursions into the Western Ghats, for reasons like road construction, power transmission lines, ore mining, stone quarrying, sand mining, ground water extraction, change of land use from forest to agriculture or human settlement, tourism, etc. Deforestation has been occurring gradually and incrementally as well as on a larger scale for government-sponsored infrastructure projects,” said the report.
Besides affecting rainfall patterns, deforestation in Kodagu seriously affects the surface and subsoil water capacity of the Cauvery river basin, the report said while warning that it could pose a threat to water security of all the four states of the river basin.
Suggestions of experts
The report said the largescale destruction in Kodagu could have been averted if the recommendations of Madhav Gadgil Committee on Ecologically Sensitive Zones of Western Ghats of 2011 had been implemented.
The subsequent Kasturirangan Committee Report on Western Ghats, which had recommended substantially milder measures, too had been rejected by all the States of Western Ghats, the report rued.
In order to prevent recurrence of such destruction, the report recommends the government to prevent deforestation and tree felling in the name of development and punish the offenders. Planting of endemic species of saplings should be taken up on all the deforested slopes.
“Halt all infrastructure projects, which threaten the ecology of Western Ghats,” the report said while calling for a halt to mining of ore and sand, besides measures to prevent pollution by industries in Kodagu district.
“No permission should be given for Special Economic Zones and no permission should be given for conversion of public lands to private ownership,” the report added.
A technical team from The Institution of Engineers (India), Mysuru Local Centre, visited the sites of damages to the arterial roads in Kodagu on August 26 to assess the damages and the possible causes for landslips, which interrupted road transportation on roads including national and state highways.
