BENGALURU: The cry against the State government’s plan to go ahead with its appeal for constructing the balancing reservoir project at Mekedatu has grown louder. Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa’s statement that the State will approach the Central government has not gone down well with conservationists.
They point to lapses in the project and question the basis on which the government wants to go ahead with it, when the matter is pending in the Supreme Court and before the Cauvery Tribunal.
“We should have smelt the smoke when minster Ramesh Jarkiholi visited Mekedatu and when DK Suresh started taking interest in boundary construction along his property abutting Cauvery Wildlife Sanctuary. The government cannot shun construction of the 66KV sub-station in Hegnur enclosure, because provision of power line through the forest was part of the agenda at the State Wildlife Board meeting,” a conservationist pointed out.
Forest officials told TNIE that the Hegnur sub-station is just 8km from Mekedatu. For the hydroelectric-cum-drinking water project, 5100ha of land in Cauvery Wildlife Sanctuary will be submerged, of which 227ha is revenue land. “No proposal has been placed before the department for forest clearance. We are not keen on giving away prime land for non-forestry works,” the official said.
A legal expert said as per the Madras HC order of 2012 and Supreme Court order of 2020: “There cannot be any project wherever there is an elephant corridor. And it is a well-known fact to all that Mekedatu is a part of a prime elephant corridor. When the central and state government is working on strengthening elephant corridors to reduce man-animal conflict, submerging 66 forest villages, prime CWS land and reserve forests for a 440MW power project and 450TMC water is foolish...”
Legal experts also said the project cannot start through single-window clearance as the state government is planning. Another conservationist said that even the family temple of late actor Rajkumar’s family, Mutatiraya temple, and the dargah near Gaganachukki-Barachukki waterfalls, will get submerged.