The Kodagu district in Karnataka sustained the brunt of nature’s fury in the recent floods and landslides, which were also credited to deforestation and environmental degradation. The 30-km National Highway in the region, which is set to be widened, passes through Aanekadu (the elephant habitat) and coffee plantations. Are we ready for trees being cut and animals put in danger?
Kodagu: With the decision of widening the two-lane National Highway-245 between Kushalnagar and Madikeri in Kodagu to four lanes is an assured recipe for another disaster in the district of Karnataka, as it involves cutting down several trees affecting the ecological-sensitive, Western Ghats.
The 30-km National Highway passing through Aanekadu (the elephant habitat) and coffee plantations, may increase incidents of animal-human conflict.
Speaking exclusively to MyNation, environmentalist Prem Mitra said, "It is a huge disaster as you cannot just build a highway in the middle of the forest. It erupts the ecosystem, and when the human population increases, the animal movement will be restricted. Not just the elephants, but there are several other animals and ecosystems that will be affected."
With the recent floods and landslides claiming 18 lives and destroying over 2,000 houses and large tracts of cultivated land in the northern parts of the district, widening the two-way National Highway into four-lane might ring in the alarm bells spelling disaster once again.
Previously, the Salem-Chennai Highway grabbed headlines claiming that this project will cut down the travel time between Chennai and Salem in Tamil Nadu by three hours (an exact distance of 68 km through this lane). After much opposition, the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) made slight modifications by cutting the cost from Rs 10,000 crore to Rs 7,210 crore and reducing the length of the road inside the reserve forest from 13.29 to 9 km.
Activist Piyush Manush fighting against this project, which he believes will displace people and affect the environment, said, "The expressway cuts across all the hill ranges such as Kabatti Malai in Tiruvannamalai, Jarugumalai in Salem and Theerthamalai on its way and it is going to destroy the ecology completely."
Nonetheless, Bengaluru also witnessed people protesting against the construction of a steel bridge that forced the state government to pull back its dream project. Then state government was resolute in building the steel flyover bridge from Basaveshwar Circle to Hebbal to control traffic bottlenecks on the stretch.
Addressing the media, former Lokayukta Justice Santosh Hegde had said, "At a cost unrelated to actuals, environmental laws and common sense... but they underestimated the strength of the masses. Fight against that proved there is strength in numbers and unity can bring even government to its knees. Bengalureans have proved it. Hope the government learns a lesson."
With several protests raising their voices against the construction of this proposed four-lane National Highway despite dealing with the recent Kodagu floods, will the Karnataka government realise that they are paving the way for a disastrous project in the name of development?
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