“Animals should live in their natural habitat and it is up to humans to adjust. ”

The Govt has been instructed to seek advise from experts in India & Africa before they plan for such an exercise.

The past decade has seen a drastic rise in man-elephant conflict in Hassan & Coorg.  Elephants entering farms and plantations has been a common sight in many parts of Coorg. Encroachment by humans of reserve forest, pysari land and revenue forest near their villages, which the elephants had been foraging for long, has only escalated the conflict.

According to the last census 260 elephants were counted in Virajpet circle and 245 in Madikeri. Nagarhole National Park had a maximum of 792 elephants and a minimum of 443 elephants with a mean population of 617 elephants.

Both say the “villagers will face hardships” if the zone comes into place.

What is all this eco-sensitive zones about ?

There are 2 kinds of Zone, Zone I & Zone II which are being created around the buffer zone of the National Parks.

• Zone I – No mining, factories, resorts, saw mills and felling of trees on private lands in the zone, plus no widening roads, drilling borewells, night movement of vehicles and use of plastics.
• Zone II – No Resorts at all. Total Ban on contruction of resorts, no dumping of waste in water sources and rivers passing through this area.

To me it seems a very novel idea to fix the man-animal conflict that has been troubling coorg lately. But the ZP thinks otherwise.  There is nothing that says agriculture will be banned in the zones.  But still ZP is crying foul.  Knew about the timer lobby in existence in Coorg, time to welcome the “Mining” &  ”Tourism Lobby” ?

Interesting to note is that the Forest Department had set up a cage-trap for her, which she visited and gave a friendly pat to the bait(lucky goat) and left. As if to mock the one’s trying to bag her.

Smart Tigeress.

There is no land left for the animals to be precise. Their is hardly any forest cover left around the Reserve Forest or National Parks, due to encroachment, expansion of the the money spinning “caffeine” plantations.  Even the Devarakads(Gods own abode) have been encroached by the devils around.

And the icining on the cake of woes(man-animal conflict) is that Kodagu Zilla Panchayat now is opposed to the ” eco-sensitive zone proposed around Nagarahole National Park fearing an impact on livelihoods among other “concerns”.

The animals are angry…. they thunder… ” this is land of our ajja’s also”.

Following the disclosure, G.A. Sudarshan was suspended in 2007, only to be reinstated and brought back to Kodagu at the best of the BJP ex-President Sandanada Gowda. But when things got to heat up after Air Marshal K C Cariappa filing a petition on the Supreme Court and the Supreme Court’s Central Empowerment Committee taking note, he was transferred out of Coorg.

A committee headed by Additional Principal Chief Conservator of Forests in a report had submitted that the officer was solely responsible for felling 3,750 trees in virgin, evergreen and semi-evergreen forests and granted permissions to widen roads in forest areas violating Forest (Conservation) Act 1980.

The Virajpet MLA and Speaker, K.G.Bopaiah had even tried to pressurize the ex-cm B.S.Yeddyurappa to reinstate the tainted forest officer and that too –  back to Coorg.

Sudarshan somehow got his job back and he is now conservator of forests (plans and survey), Shimoga.

The former Lokayukta cheif Justice Santosh Hegde has warned the forest department and told them that he knows how to deal with them.

Jairam Ramesh with U.S. Ambassador Roemer at a function displaying artwork provided by the Ranthambore School of Art. Image Courtesy: US Embassy, New Delhi.

Coming down heavily on Karnataka Government’s request to the Center for deletion of the 10 identified sites in Western Ghats, that come under the State of Karnataka, the Union Minister for forest, Jairam Ramesh told Deccan Herald that;

The Karnataka Government’s opposition to get Unesco heritage tag to the Western Ghats is giving wide scope to suspect that it is yielding to the pressure from vested interests like forest encroachers, mining, timber smugglers and poachers.

He also said that MoEF had first submitted its dossier on the Western Ghats for Unesco’s heritage status in March 2006 after getting the “approval” from the Karnataka government.

That seems to vindicate the stand of the environmentalists that they had nothing to do in proposal of Western Ghats for Heritage Tag.  Some Political representatives and eminiment persons like A.K.Subbaiah & Nanda Subbaiah had been claiming for long that the environmentalists in Coorg are behind the move to notify certain areas in Coorg as World Heritage site.

The Union Minister also told Deccan Herald that the tag will not threaten human settlements, including tribal populations in the forest. He said “this is totally rubbish and concocted stories by vested interests people who have been looting forest wealth”.

Karnataka Forest Minister C.H. Vijayashankar (R) speaking to Media in Kodagu. File Photo.

The Forest Minister even refered to UNESCO as a “Foreign Agency” and compared it to East India Company.

Netas hand in glove with power, mining Lobbies – TOI
Views of prominent environmentalist on the Govt Opposition.

Unesco does not interfere with sites - TOI
An explanation refuting some of Govt Claims.

Untenable logic – Karnataka must embrace Unesco tag with pride. – Deccan Herald
An Article in Deccan Herald

Tag or no tag, Western Ghats will thrive in Karnataka – DNA
Reaction of Ananth Hegde Ashisara, Chairman, Western Ghats Task force.  The Task Force seems to be have been opposed to the tag from the get go. Interestingly Western Ghats Task Force is set up by the Govt itself.

Why Karnataka is saying no to UNESCO tag – First Post
An article by Subir Ghosh trying to understand the stand and critical about the Govt move.

Fear of eviction unfounded – The Hindu
UNESCO addresses the Govt’s fear about displacement of people from the area, says nothing of that sort can happen. The areas will still be continued to be ruled by the law of the Lands.

World Heritage tag will not affect life in Western Ghats: experts – The Hindu

I was wondering how is it possible for anyone to have such an event in a reserve forest? Doesn’t Tadiandamol and the area surrounding it comes under Pushpagiri or Brahmagiri Wildlife Sactuary ?

Secondly, the area has herds of elephant. And there have been instances in the past when trekkers had to leave their camps and run for cover. What about security ?

Plus lately the attitude of the elephants have gone a drastic change(for worse) with the drastic depletion of the forest cover and Man-Elephant conflict in Coorg has sky rocketed. Read: Elephants on Rampage in Kodagu .

I personally doubt that the festival is being hosted on Tadiandamol,  it seems seems to be in a location near the mountain called Bamboo Fields, as mentioned on their official website.

The Title on their website is also quite interesting…”Create a Strom in the Midst of Mother Nature”.  Lets see if Mama Nature and her denizens appreciate that or not.