Karnataka

Is it a bio-diversity site or a national park?

— File Photo: Sampath Kumar G.P.

SERENE: A view of the protected forests of the Brahmagiri Wildlife Sanctuary.

Madikeri: What were the directions of the then Chief Minister on August 4, 2003 concerning the wildlife sanctuaries in Kodagu? Did he prefer creation of a bio-diversity world heritage site or a Greater Talacauvery Wildlife Sanctuary or a national park?

The issue — carving out Greater Talacauvery Wildlife Sanctuary first by bringing together the three wildlife sanctuaries in Kodagu and adjoining areas, and subsequently creating a national park — had stirred the hornet’s nest in the district. It has been alive for the past five years as also the confusion over the project which still remains in the minds of people.

Going by the records, “Chief Minister S.M. Krishna today (on August 4, 2003) instructed the Principal Secretary, Forest, Ecology and Environment Department to submit a detailed proposal to the UNESCO for considering the Pushpagiri, Talacauvery and Brahmagiri protected forests as a ‘Bio-diversity World Heritage Zone’.” Representatives of several environmental organisations had called on the Chief Minister seeking remedial measures to improve the forests from where the Cauvery originates.

The Secretary to the Government, Forest, Environment and Ecology, Dipak Sarmah, in a letter to R.M. Ray, the then Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (Wildlife), on August 19, 2003, wrote stating that the following points had figured in the discussion involving the Chief Minister on August 4, 2003.

Mr. Krishna had asked the officials to prepare a comprehensive project to declare the Western Ghats of Kodagu district as biosphere reserve and submit it to the UNESCO.

He had also instructed the officials to stop collection of dead and fallen trees from the forest areas which connected the three wildlife sanctuaries. Significantly, Mr. Sarmah had said that the Chief Minister had asked [them] to “consider constitution of a national park by combining the three wildlife sanctuaries and other forest areas connecting them”. It was only to “consider”, not take action for creation of a national park”, an official in the Forest Department said.

Mr. Sarmah had stated that in view of this, a comprehensive proposal with regard to constitution of the biosphere reserve may be prepared.

As regards the constitution of the national park by combining the three wildlife sanctuaries and forest areas connecting these, it is requested that the matter may be examined and reported for further action. But, the new nomenclature given to the proposal as Greater Talacauvery National Park had created a confusion in the minds of the people of Kodagu.

Political parties, various associations, individuals and organisations had come out against the national park theory fearing it could displace principal inhabitants from their homes. The Jamma Malai lands given to certain families on lease for cardamom cultivation alone during the times of the former rulers of Kodagu, graveyards, houses, grazing lands for cattle, roads, right of way, were all located in one corner or the other of the forests and it infused a sense of disquiet among people.

Sources in the Forest Department said there were no instructions by the Chief Minister to carve out a Greater Talacauvery National Park. It was only a proposal mooted by the non-governmental organisations (NGOs).

“This twisted idea had caused confusion in Kodagu,” they said.

One of the NGOs, which is a signatory to the proposal, had come up with a clarification that NGOs had mooted the idea of Greater Talacauvery Wildlife Sanctuary first and later for upgradation as national park.

The former Chief Minister, H.D. Kumaraswamy, too had denied rumours of the national park idea.

Brahmagiri, Talacauvery and Pushpagiri wildlife sanctuaries are spread over an area of 388 sq km. But a large contiguous area such as Kerti, Urti, Padinalknad, Pattighat, Subramanya, Kiribag and Kadamakkal reserve forests, which are currently not part of the sanctuaries, were to be included in the plan and re-designated as Greater Talacauvery Wildlife Sanctuary in phase I, the NGOs had said.

The NGOs had suggested to the Government that it take steps to declare these areas as a World Heritage Site under a UNESCO-funded project in phase II.

Once these areas were selected as World Heritage Site, funds to “acquire/settle” existing legal rights in the wildlife sanctuary could be earmarked and after completion of the settlement process, the area could be upgraded as a national park.

Deputy Speaker of the Legislative Assembly K.G. Bopaiah too had stated recently that there was no such proposal before the Government. No project that could go against the welfare of the people would be allowed in Kodagu.

© Copyright 2000 - 2009 The Hindu