Visitors to Shettihalli, a village located amid thick forests about 20 km away from Shivamogga town in central Karnataka, have to pass through a check-post. The staff there enquire with them about the purpose of their visit and seek details of the persons they are planning to meet in the village. They also take a photo of the visitor’s vehicle before allowing it to pass.
This is one of the villages that came to being after the construction of the Linganamakki dam across the Sharavati in the 1960s. A few families displaced from Sagar taluk due to the project meant to generate electricity for Karnataka were asked to settle amid the forest, which is now part of the Shettihalli Wildlife Sanctuary. Shettihalli is one of the villages that comes under the ecologically sensitive area of the Western Ghats as per the draft notification issued by the Ministry of Environment, Forest, and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) according to the recommendations of a high-level working group headed by space scientist K. Kasturirangan.
Around 100 families have settled in Shettihalli, which lacks basic amenities despite being located close to the district headquarters. The residents do not see a KSRTC bus in the village except during elections when State transport buses bring polling staff and ballot boxes. Until a few years ago, the residents used to reach Shivamogga by foot and even carry patients on their shoulders whenever they needed emergency healthcare.
“We left our place at Byakod in Sagar taluk in 1963 when work on the Sharavati hydroelectric project started. But, we got power supply only 60 years after settling here, that is in 2023. There is no public transport and no proper road,” says S.G. Halappa, a resident of Shettihalli, who was five when his parents moved there.
The government primary school at Shettihalli, a village of 100 families, located amid thick forests in Shivamogga taluk of Karnataka. The village lacks basic amenities.
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SATHISH G.T.
Children study up to class 5 in the government primary school in the village, and almost all of them join a residential school for class 6. “Hence, only parents and grandparents are in the village. You will not see any students or youth. Maybe, after some years, the village will become a haunted place with no people,” says Mohan Kumar, another resident.
For several years, the residents have been fighting for basic amenities. They approached court seeking electricity supply and succeeded in their efforts after many years. “That was a long legal battle. We are worried what our plight will be if our place is declared an ecologically sensitive area when our condition is already bad because of the existing forest laws,” says Devaraj P., an advocate and native of Shettihalli.
Sixth draft
The horrific landslides during heavy rain in Wayanad of Kerala and the landslip at Shirur in Uttara Kannada in Karnataka, in which many people lost their lives, have triggered a debate over the relevance of reports on safeguarding the biodiversity hotspot — the Western Ghats.
The MoEF&CC constituted the Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel under ecologist Madhav Gadgil in March 2010. The panel submitted its report in August 2011. In the report, the expert group recommended classifying the Western Ghats region into three levels of ecological sensitivity. Gadgil has termed the recent massive landslides in Wayanad as man-made as crucial ecological recommendations were rejected in the “highly sensitive area”, where the disaster occurred.
After the expert panel submitted its report, the MoEF&CC constituted a high-level working group under the chairmanship of Kasturirangan in August 2012. The committee visited various places, interacted with people, and submitted its report on April 15, 2013. The high-level working group recommended that 37% of the total area in the Western Ghats be declared an ecologically sensitive area (ESA). It included a continuous band of natural vegetation extending over a horizontal distance of 1,500 km. The group recommended the prohibition or regulation of development projects in the proposed ESA.
The proposed ESA includes 59,940 sq. km of natural landscape of the Western Ghats spread across Karnataka, Gujarat, Goa, Tamil Nadu, and Maharashtra. In Karnataka, the area includes 20,668 sq. km, spanning over 1,576 villages in 10 districts. So far, the MoEF&CC has issued six draft notifications. The latest was on July 31, 2024, ironically a day after the landslides in Kerala.
In Karnataka, much like in Kerala, whenever a draft is notified, people of the to-be-impacted region (in this case Malnad), including elected representatives irrespective of their political affiliations, oppose it. They exert pressure on the State government to reject the report.
The draft notification prohibits mining, quarrying, and sand extraction in the ESA. The existing mines are to be phased out within five years from the date of the final notification. Thermal power projects and red-category industries are not to be allowed. It recommends the prohibition of construction projects measuring 20,000 sq. m and above. It recommends organic farming in the area.
Many disasters
Following disasters in Kerala and Karnataka, many environmentalists have stressed the need to implement the recommendations of the Kasturirangan report. They say “unscientific” road-widening works and irrigation projects in the ghats are responsible for landslips in Karnataka.
Shettihalli came to being after people were displaced during the construction of the Linganamakki dam across the Sharavati in Shivamogga district of Karnataka in the 1960s.
| Photo Credit:
SATHISH G.T.
As many as 11 people went missing following a landslip on the National Highway 66 at Shirur in Uttara Kannada district. The stretch of the National Highway 75, which connects Bengaluru and Mangaluru, reported multiple landslips near Sakleshpur, obstructing the movement of vehicles. A portion of the road that connects Harle and Nadahalli in Sakleshpur was swept away in a landslip. Similar incidents were reported in parts of Chikkamagaluru and Shivamogga districts as well.
Akhilesh Chipli, an environmentalist from Sagar in Shivamogga, stressed the need for protecting the Western Ghats through strict implementation of the Kasturirangan report recommendations. “I have been in favour of following the recommendations of Madhav Gadgil’s report on the Western Ghats. The recommendations are democratic and effective. However, the Union government diluted the report by forming another group under the leadership of Kasturirangan,” he says.
Though Kasturirangan’s report, he maintained, was not as effective as Gadgil’s report, it should be looked into seriously and implemented in the interests of people in the Western Ghats.“The recommendations prohibit mega projects in the Western Ghats. The governments should wake up and show the political will to implement the report,” he says.
Forest Minister acts
A series of rain-related disasters and a widespread cry in favour of measures for the safety of the Western Ghats forced Karnataka Minister for Forests Eshwar B. Khandre to order his officers to clear all forest land that had been encroached upon since 2015. He also directed them to act on unauthorised layouts, plantations, resorts, and homestays operating on forest land illegally. He has set a deadline of one month to act upon the instructions and submit an action-taken report. Later, the Minister announced a Western Ghats Forest Encroachment Task Force to clear illegal structures in the Western Ghats region, spread across 10 districts, under the leadership of the Principal Chief Conservator of Forests.
The owners of homestays are not opposed to taking action against those who run resorts and homestays without obtaining mandatory permission. N.R. Tejaswi, president of the Homestay Owners’ Association in Chikkamagaluru district, says the association welcomes any action against unauthorised homestays. “Only those who have proper records for their land get licences to run homestays. If any people are running such facilities on encroached land, the government can act on them,” he says.
However, with regard to alleged encroachments on forest land, he argues that people should be given a fair chance to defend themselves. “Officers should not act without hearing the other side. Let there be a survey of land and proper inquiry before evicting any family,” he says.
Extent of encroachment
According to Khandre, more than two lakh acres of forest land in Karnataka have been encroached upon. Within a day of constituting the task force, officers at the district level began to identify such forest land. In the first instance, a team of officials led by Nandish L., Deputy Conservator of Forests in Koppa, Chikkamagaluru district, cleared encroachments on 36 acres at Tanudi in Koppa taluk. The staff reclaimed forest land by clearing a coffee plantation.
Similarly, officers in Shivamogga, Hassan, and other districts have identified places where more than three acres of forest land have been encroached upon. However, the Minister has made it clear that no house or land of those who have applied for a grant under the Forest Rights Act will be vacated.
A file photo of K. Kasturirangan’s visit to Gundya in Sakleshpur taluk of Hassan district. He was accompanied by other members of the high-level working group.
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File Photo
Data obtained from the Forest Department shows that as of March 31, 2024, a total of 1,67,348 acres of forest has been encroached upon across Karnataka. The officers have recovered just 14,834 acres so far.
On the implementation of the Kasturirangan report, the Minister has said the Karnataka government will take a decision only after discussing the issue in the State Cabinet and with leaders of all political parties. “Earlier, the State government had decided to reject the report. However, with the fresh notification issued by the Centre, a decision will be taken after consulting the Chief Minister, the Cabinet, and leaders of other parties,” he says, which is an indication of the politically sensitive nature of the issue.
Political opposition
Irrespective of their political affiliation, elected representatives from Shivamogga, Chikkamagaluru, and Uttara Kannada districts have opposed the report. MLAs from the BJP and the Congress elected in the Malnad region have opposed the recommendations of the report and staged protests in the past. That finally put pressure on successive governments to reject the report.
Ramesh Hegde, a Congress leader in Shivamogga, says the existing forest laws are enough to protect and conserve the Western Ghats. The new restrictions in the name of the Kasturirangan report will affect the farming community severely and rob them of their livelihood. “We are not opposed to restrictions on mining or industries in the region. But, in the name of promoting organic farming, the report discourages the use of chemicals. Arecanut growers have been using copper sulphate to protect the plants from rot disease. As there are no alternative medicines to mitigate the disease, we have to use chemicals. Such restrictions will affect the farming community severely,” he says.
Activists in Chikkamagaluru launched a drive across the Malnad districts and motivated people to file objections to the draft notifications. Kalkuli Vittal Hegde, a writer and activist in Sringeri, has once again given a call for filing objections to the fresh draft notification. “In both Gadgil report and Kasturirangan report, the studies are purely biological. The purpose of the study was to safeguard biodiversity. However, neither of the reports talks of the geological aspects of the region. There are no findings on the reasons for landslips,” he says.
Landslips, he says, occurred due to both human activity and heavy rain. “The government has taken up four-lane highway work unscientifically. The vertical cutting of hillocks for road widening led to landslips during heavy rain.” About Wayanad, he says that when it rains heavily in a short period, landslips may occur. “Against the forecast of 200 mm rainfall, the place received 570 mm rainfall. Neither Gadgil nor Kasturirangan gives the reasons for such heavy rainfall that caused huge devastation in the Western Ghats. There is no point in blaming resorts or developments of any sort in the Malnad region for whatever has happened now,” he says.
Why blame one region?
He believes global warming and climate change are the causes of the heavy rainfall that led to landslips and destruction. “We know the reasons for global warming. Generating power by burning fossil fuels, dependence on petrol and diesel, cement production, and such activities cause global warming. Then, why should only people of the Malnad region suffer for the sins committed by those living in big cities who are more responsible for global warming?” Hegde says there should be restrictions on activities that contribute to global warming in urban areas.
Across villages on the foothills of the Western Ghats, there is strong opposition from the local people to the recommendations of the report. Many fear a loss of livelihood and eviction or at least further deprivation of access to amenities if the recommendations are implemented. While the people of Shettihalli got electricity at least 60 years after settling there, Urulagallu, also a relocated village in Sagar taluk, has not got power supply even now. The residents of Urulagallu, which is also on the list of villages as per the draft notification, have been fighting for power supply and roads.
Nagaraj Salakod, a resident of Urulagallu, sardonically says, “As there are no roads, officers have hardly visited our village to listen to our problems.”
(With inputs from Hemanth C.S.)