Forest land damage minimal for Yettinahole project: Committee

The regional empowered committee (REC) of the Ministry of Environment and Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) has not found much merit in the argument against the diversion of a patch of forest land for the Yettinahole project in Sakleshpur. It has said that the project can be taken up provided certain conditions are followed.

The committee, on December 18, had done a spot visit to study certain issues and complaints regarding the diversion of 13.93 hectares of forest land in various forests of Sakleshpur taluk in Hassan district for implementation of Yettinahole project. Later, the committee held a meeting with officers of the Forest department.

As per the minutes of the meeting of the REC, which was attended by a host of top forest officers, it was noted that the project is aimed at providing safe drinking water to the drought-prone areas of Kolar, Chikkaballapur, Bengaluru Rural, Ramanagar, parts of Tumakuru, Hassan and Chikkamagaluru districts.

The total population to be benefited from the scheme for the year 2023-24 is 75.59 lakh. The committee has been informed that the Gundia project may have to be dropped consequent to the implementation of the Yettinahole drinking water project.

Also, there is no proposal on Gundia project before the MoEF&CC for diversion of forest land. As such, the committee cannot take into account any of the objections on account of this. The forest land involved is located mostly on the fringes of the reserve forest and Section-4 notified areas and the deemed forest land is the revenue land.

The panel noted that the State government has already gone into the technical feasibility and the availability of water in the catchment’s area of different weirs through recognised and reputed experts. “This committee is not competent to comment on the technical aspects of the project,” it said.

Total notified forest area involved in this project is only 8.1 ha and balance 5.83 ha of area involved in this clearance is deemed forest under the ownership of the Revenue department. This is against the total land requirement of 276.08 ha for this project.

On the issue of composition of vegetation in the proposed area, it is noted that only forest near weir number 6 and weir number 3 are having natural vegetation rich in bio-diversity. Rest of the forest area is degraded, but artificially regenerated with species. The catchment area of the project is mostly covered by plantations of coffee and tea.

Diversion of water without impounding the same in large reservoirs is not expected to have any material impact on the ecology of the catchment area. However, care should be taken to minimise the impact on the downstream region of the project as it flows through natural forests.

The committee has requested the user agency to examine the technical feasibility of diverting water from weir number 2 to weir number 8, through a tunnel instead of pumping the same as this would result in lesser requirement of land and power.