Date:11/03/2006 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2006/03/11/stories/2006031104140500.htm

Karnataka - Bangalore

Farmers submit petitions on Upper Bhadra project

Staff Reporter

BANGALORE: Members of the Save Western Ghats Movement on Friday presented a memorandum to K.C. Reddy, Chairman of the Technical Committee on the proposed Upper Bhadra Project in Chikmagalur district, opposing the project.

Mr. Reddy, who is a former Public Works and Irrigation Secretary, said that about 50 organisations had presented such memoranda to the Water Resources Development Organisation for and against the construction of second dam across the Bhadra in the district.

Leading the delegation, D.N. Jeevaraj and M.P. Kumaraswamy, MLAs, and B.L. Ramadas, former president of the zilla panchayat, urged the Technical Committee to abandon the project because it would destroy the biodiversity of the region. Dense forests rich in flora and fauna will be destroyed. Instead, they said pick up dams can be built and the tanks in the district should be developed to raise the water table.

They said that Lakkavalli Dam across the Bhadra had a capacity of 73 tmcft of water and provision had been made for collecting another 23 tmcft in the dam to be built under the Bhadra upper project under scheme-A.