JOIN USArunachalam, owner of Woodies, the property abutting the Cauvery Wildlife Sanctuary, states that he is constructing a home and not a resort. He said he had purchased the land from a farmer in 2013-14, cleared the forest like area and planted 12,000 timber saplings.
He said he has also constructed a house and obtained permission from the gram panchayat in 2015. He was also quick to add that he was not aware of any buffer zone or that his property in Chamarajanagar district was standing on the buffer zone.
He was reacting to a report in DH about the forest department seeking permission from the additional chief secretary to demolish the property as its stands in the buffer zone. Arunachalam also said that if the government finds any commercial activity in his residential and agricultural plot, it was free to demolish it.