No film city in Hesaraghatta. Are grasslands safe then?

Not really, say conservationists fighting to save the last few stretches

Conservationists are fighting to save the city’s last standing grasslands, near Hesaraghatta.

About 30 km from Vidhana Soudha, Hesaraghatta also houses a dairy farming institute. Since the 1980s, the government has been talking about a film city there. This week, it said Mysuru would be the location.

“The announcement is not an assurance in any way that the grasslands are safe,” says Yash Marwah, founder of Let India Breathe, an environmental group working in conservation. “This is the third time since the ’80s that the film city has been shifted to Mysuru.”

Dimple Purohit, one of the organisers of the Save Hesaraghatta protest that took place last Friday at Mysore Bank Circle, says Hessaraghatta acts as a carbon sink for the city, balancing out a significant amount of pollution. “Destroying it would only do us harm,” she says.

Neglected area

Dimple and Yash say a major reason for the neglect of Hesaraghatta is that grasslands are not considered as precious as forests.

“Forests are usually the focus of most conservation campaigns, maybe because of the imagery of the lush green vegetation, crawling with animals of all shapes and sizes. There is a tangibility to them that’s not seen with grasslands,” says Yash.

Ovee Thorat, researcher and expert on grasslands, says they have long been considered ‘wastelands’ not suitable for ‘productive’ uses such as agriculture.

“This is why they are grabbed for industrial and infrastructural expansion. However, grasslands support a variety of lives, and serve as grazing pasture for livestock,” she says.

A stretch of grassland that looks barren in summer turns lush green with just one or two showers of rain.

“Once destroyed or disturbed, grasslands might take hundreds of years to return to their original state,” she says.

Yash says that the government is more inclined to do tree planting missions and campaigns like ‘Cauvery Calling’ than take impactful decisions.

So what are environmentalists demanding? Dimple says the first move would be to acknowledge that the area is of environmental value and must be conserved.

The next step, Yash says, would be to study the biodiversity in the region. Ovee suggests grasslands be used by scientists to study the effects of climate change on vegetation. “Since it’s so close to the city it also makes a good place to carry out environmental education activities,” she adds.

Hesaraghatta facts

365 acres of land

1,912 acres of lakebed

235 species of birds

400 species of insects

100 species of butterflies

Why it must be protected

The lilac silverline butterfly considered to be extinct was rediscovered in Hesaraghatta in 2012 after nearly 120 years.

In 2011, the lesser florican, an endangered bird species, was rediscovered here after 100 years.

Nearly 30 species of insects found in the area have been described as new to science.

‘We need a film city’

Filmmaker B Suresha says a film city will make it possible for Kannada filmmakers to create movies at the same scale as ‘Baahubali’ and ‘Radhe Shyam’.

“Movies like these need bigger floors to allow you to shoot war and period scenes. This requires a minimum of 200-250 acres of land. Right now, only Ramoji Film City in Hyderabad can provide this,” he says.

(With inputs from Krupa Joseph)