A meeting of the district’s elected representatives, comprising Speaker of Legislative Assembly Kagodu Thimmappa, Shivamogga MP and BJP national vice-president B.S. Yeddyurappa and Minister of State for Primary and Secondary Education Kimmane Ratnakar, has passed a resolution to recommend to the State government to reject the Kasturirangan Committee report on conservation of Western Ghats.
Addressing the meeting, Mr. Thimmappa said that during the public hearings conducted in the district to discuss the pros and cons of the report, people had registered their strong opposition to it. In the neighbouring Kerala also, the report had evoked a similar response. The ecologically sensitive areas were identified on the basis of satellite maps and data. The committee had not conducted proper ground-level survey. It was wrong to implement the report in haste, he said. The existing laws were sufficient for the conservation of Western Ghats. The traditional rights of the people of Malnad region enjoyed over forest would be curtailed by implementing the report, he said.
Mr. Yeddyurappa said that implementation of the report would impose restrictions on taking up public utility works like upgrading of civic amenities in villages identified for conservation. In all, 474 villages in Shivamogga district came under the ecologically sensitive areas identified for conservation by the committee, he said.
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Mr. Rathnakar directed the Forest officials not to impose restrictions on sand extraction and crushing of stone, which were necessary for taking development projects, in the name of Kasturirangan Committee report.
Ayanur Manjunath, Member of Rajya Sabha; B.Y. Raghavendra, Shikaripur MLA; V.P. Ikkeri, Deputy Commissioner; Koushalendra Kumar, Superintendent of Police, and B. Ramu, Chief Executive Officer of the zilla panchayat, attended the meeting.