MANGALURU: It’s 12.30 in the afternoon at Nehru Circle, the heart of Kudremukh township. Though surrounded by a CBSE school, a 50-bed hospital, a civil supplies warehouse, a recreation centre and thousands of houses, there is not a soul in sight as far as the eyes could stretch. Except for the sound of birds flying overhead, cry of a wild hen from the wilderness beyond the school and the distant scream of a peacock, an eerie silence prevails on the streets. The school was closed a year ago and remaining institutions remain functional with skeletal staff.
Just 15 years ago Kudremukh, located 110km from Mangaluru and 95km south-west of Chikmagalur, was a bustling town with a population of more than 35,000, comprising mostly employees of Kudremukh Iron Ore Company Ltd (KIOCL), their family members and labourers. It was virtually a paradise with uninterrupted power and water supply and half a dozen shopping complexes. Regular bus service from the township connected it to cities like Mangaluru, Shivamogga and Chikmagaluru. Kudremukh, with its many tourist attractions and trekking options, also attracted tourists in droves. Not any more. It was in 1987 that Kudremukh was declared as a national park (630 sqkm). But mining operations continued even after the lease ended in 1999. Following Supreme Court’s orders, mining operations ceased on December 31, 2005. But the decline of the township had started in 2001.
After mining ended, the iron ore plant with an annual capacity of 7.5 million tonnes and other machinery was pulled apart and shipped as scrap by Annam Steels. “My business nosedived when 200 employees of Annam Steels left the town,’’ says Sudheer, who owns the only provision store in Kudremukh’s Netravathy market. Others had closed shop even before that.
Kudremukh was reduced to a ghost town when KIOCL downsized. Kustagi, a senior KIOCL officer, is elated as he has received orders to report to Human Resources Department in the company’s iron oxide pelletisation complex near Panambur in Mangaluru. With Kustagi’s exit, the number of staff in Kudremukh will come down to 58. At the peak of its operation, KIOCL, a public sector company, directly employed about 2,500 people. A majority of 1,922 quarters spread over 370 acres, that once housed families of KIOCL employees, are in dilapidated condition. All shopping complexes, restaurants, hotels, banks, petrol outlets and the only college have closed down. A Kannada-medium school is still running, but it also faces the threat of closing down. An heliport and its hangar, where the climax scenes of many Kannada, Tamil and Hindi films (including some starring the likes of Amitabh Bachchan and Rajnikanth) were filmed is in ruins.
As tourist footfalls reduced, KIOCL stopped maintaining its park -- Nandanavana. With its huge roses, ornamental fishes and fountains, the park was a major tourist attraction until a year ago. The hospital, functioning with half a dozen staff, leaks at many places.
Educationist Dr M Mohan Alva’s plans to renovate the 54-room guesthouse (Sahyadri Bhavan) and 30 D-type bungalows (quarters for top officials) have been kept in abeyance after activists filed a case in the Karnataka High Court, says KIOCL General Manager Gajanana Pai. Hundreds of cattle, abandoned by farmers, wander around the streets, often falling prey to attacks by street dogs.
During Chikmagalur Deputy Commissioner G Sathyavathi’s recent visit to Kudremukh, proposals for promoting low-scale tourism and developing the hospital and school were submitted to her, says Pai. He recollects that when the DC was shown around, the latter could not help remark Kudremukh in its present form evoked images of “Vijayanagar empire in ruins”. Pai says KIOCL incurs a monthly expenditure of `30 to `40 lakh for running the township.
It has been more than 10 years since mining completely came to a close in the Kudremukh range, but the ecological damage caused by 30 years of mining is still evident. Though KIOCL, as per the Supreme Court’s directions, had deposited `20 crore a decade ago, the forest department’s eco-restoration plan for mine-damaged area has not been implemented yet.