Madikeri: Former MLC A.K. Subbaiah on Saturday accused some environmental groups of adopting an anti-people stance with a view to garnering foreign funds in the name of environment protection and conservation in the district.

He was reacting to a letter to Deputy Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa on January 20 by a group of "environmentalists" from Bangalore, Mysore, Mandya and Kodagu districts. The letter stated that forests in Kodagu should be preserved and their destruction could lead to an environmental disaster not only in Kodagu, but also in the regions where the Cauvery flowed. Subsequently, Mr. Yediyurappa sought clarifications from the Principal Chief Conservator of Forests.

Addressing presspersons here, Mr. Subbaiah said landholders were demanding rights over trees grown by them on their land and not in the forests. Instead of giving importance to the letter, Mr. Yediyurappa should have ignored it.

The Government should expose the activities of environmental organisations here, including foreign funds they received. He criticised the reported statement by a prominent environmentalist who termed the people opposing the Greater Talacauvery National Park idea as anti-socials.

Mr. Subbaiah opposed the move to establish a Chair in Mangalore University to study the administration of former Lingayat rulers of Kodagu for which Mr. Yediyurappa had announced Rs. 25 lakh in the budget. History was replete with examples over the rule of former rulers of Kodagu, which for most parts was tyrannical. There was no need for such a Chair, he said, calling the budget presented by Mr. Yediyurappa as a "casteist budget".

Mr. Subbaiah rubbished the statements by S.P. Mahadevappa, president of the Akhila Bharata Veerashaiva Mahasabha's Kodagu unit, who had objected to the views of former Minister M.C. Nanaiah and Somwarpet MLA B.A. Jivijaya over the institution of the Chair. Both had stated that such a Chair was unnecessary. He lauded the Lingayat community in Kodagu for not getting provoked by the statements of Mr. Mahadevappa.

Mr. Subbaiah welcomed the decision of the Government banning lottery and arrack.

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