Karnataka - Madikeri   

‘Drop proposal to set up new sanctuary’

Madikeri: Kodagu Conservator of Forests, G.A. Sudarshan, has recommended to the Principal Secretary (Forests, Ecology and Environment Department) and the Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (PCCF-Wildlife), to drop the proposed plan mooted by certain Non-Governmental Organisations in August 2003, to carve out Greater Talacauvery Wildlife Sanctuary in Kodagu, citing several reasons.

In a letter to the authorities on September 18, 2008, Mr. Sudarshan said that the elected representatives and the general public were opposed to the idea of creating Greater Talacauvery Wildlife Sanctuary by combining the Talacauvery, Brahmagiri and Pushpagiri wildlife sanctuaries in the district. Mr. Sudarshan has said that if the proposal was given a go-ahead, then, firstly, the District Commissioner should settle the issue of the rights of the forest dwellers. Next, the ‘Scheduled Tribe and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act’ would have to be implemented in Kodagu.

Mr. Sudarshan said that the proposed areas had a number of villages and private land holdings, interspersed with settlements and farmlands. Issue of ‘Jamma Malai’ (forest lands leased to certain families to cultivate cardamom by the former rulers of Kodagu), was still not settled. Determining the ownership of private lands would be a difficult affair since property held by families has not been divided among members. Temples frequented by devotees were also located inside the proposed area.

As many as 22 villages and a hamlet and parts of many more villages are a part of the proposed area, Mr. Sudarshan said adding that ambiguity in the demarcation of the boundaries in the sanctuaries, could result in disputes.

Besides all this, running through the proposed sanctuary are major roads: Madikeri-Mangalore State highway, Madikeri-Bhagamandala-Kerala inter-State highway and Madikeri-Virajpet-Makutta-Kerala inter-State highway. If the proposed sanctuary was notified, regular maintenance of these roads might be difficult, Mr. Sudarshan stated.

He added that the Deputy Conservators of Forests, Madikeri and Virajpet divisions, had suggested to him that the three existing wildlife sanctuaries would be better administered if they were transferred to their respective jurisdictions. They also said that the existing wildlife division in the forest department, which now looked after the sanctuaries, be wound up.

Mr. Sudarshan mentioned in the letter that the issue of creating Greater Talacauvery Wildlife Sanctuary had not been debated in the public forums, gram panchayats, taluk panchayats, involving elected representatives. It will affect people residing in the villages falling within the proposed area. The issue of declaring a buffer zone for the tiger reserve could also come in the way, he said.

However, the issue of the Greater Talacauvery Wildlife Sanctuary was discussed at length in the Zilla Panchayat meeting held in Madikeri on August 28, 2003. The members had opposed the proposal. A resolution was also passed not to notify or declare the areas as one contiguous unit (Greater Talacauvery Wildlife Sanctuary), he stated.

The Principal Secretary to the Government, Forests, Ecology and Environment, in his letter to the PCCF (Wildlife) had clearly stated that the “the (then) Chief Minister, S.M. Krishna, has today instructed Principal Secretary and Environment Department to submit a detailed proposal to the UNESCO for considering Pushpagiri, Talacauvery and Brahmagiri protected forests as a Bio-diversity World Heritage Zone”. But, the NGOs had twisted the proposal, Mr. Sudarshan said in the letter.

Mr. Sudarshan further said the points that had come up before the then Chief Minister (Mr. Krishna) and the NGOs meeting on August 4, 2003, were to prepare a comprehensive proposal to declare the western ghats of Kodagu district as biosphere reserve and to submit the same to the UNESCO; to stop collection of dead and fallen trees from the forest areas, which connected the wildlife sanctuaries of Pushpagiri, Brahmagiri and Talacauvery; and “to consider the constitution of a National Park by combining the three sanctuaries and other forest areas connecting them”.

As regards the last point, the Government’s direction was to examine the matter and submit a report to it for further action.

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