MADIKERI: Major issues in Kodagu such as according tree rights to landholders, forest occupation and others will be solved soon, district in-charge and Horticulture Minister Alangur Srinivas said on Saturday.

Inaugurating the Kodagu Model Forest Programme, claimed to be the first model forest site in the country, at the College of forestry, at Ponnampet in Virajpet taluk, Mr. Srinivas said he held a detailed discussion with Chief Minister N. Dharam Singh about the problems being faced by the people of Kodagu.

The issue of conferring rights over trees to the landholders on their own lands will come up before the Cabinet for discussion soon, Mr. Srinivas said.

The Minister did not rule out amending the Forest Act for the benefit of landholders in the district. He said he had received a series of complaints from the people against forest officials. If officials did not mend their ways, he will recommend stringent action against them, Mr. Srinivas said.

Maintenance of forests

Deputy High Commissioner of Canada Kenneth Mcartney, who was a guest, said Canada served as a model in the maintenance of forests. Its forest produce exports occupied a top position in that country. Model forest programme was successful in Canada. Developing forests will also promote tourism, he felt.

Mukkatira Taumey Mahendrappa, scientist from Canada, who is instrumental in forging the model forest programme here, said Kodagu must be declared a "forest district." The district had now joined the list of countries in the international model forest network secretariat (IMFNS). Kodagu is poised to excel in the international map of the model forest programme in future, he said.

Executive Director of the IMFNS Peter Besseau said that 40 countries have joined the international model forest programme. Kodagu is its 41st member. Principal Secretary, Forests and Environment, Shiva Kumar said the forest department is committed to developing and conserving forests through community participation.

Officials criticised

Later, addressing the gathering, Madikeri MLA K.G.Bopaiah and C.S. Arun Machaiah, MLC, lambasted officials of the Forest Department for adopting an anti-people stance in Kodagu.

Mr. Bopaiah said people of the district had nursed a long lasting relationship with the forests and environment, but due to the faulty practise resorted to by certain forest officials, the tree wealth of Kodagu has turned a curse for the landholders. The officials harass people in spite of the ruling of the courts in peoples' favour, he alleged.

Mr. Machaiah said that if the department could declare over 35,000 acres of forests on which it had grown teak as "teak forests," then it should declare the 87,000 acre coffee plantation area in Kodagu as "coffee forests." He blamed the Forest Department's negative policies for the "disappearance" of sandalwood in the State, adding, if the same trend continues, rosewood too would be wiped out in the next 10 years.

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