MoEF & Climate change panel refuses to accept Karntaka govt's explanation on Yettinahole violations

Bengaluru: The state government’s efforts to expedite the Yettinahole project continue to be hit by past forest violations by its contractors with a committee under the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) seeking a detailed report on the violations.

The violations pertain to the use of hundreds of acres of forest land without the necessary clearances for the diversion. The delay in the project has led to the escalation of the cost.

The government had recently revealed the latest estimate of the cost at Rs 23,251 crore.
A total of 428.25 acres land has been sought by the Visvesvaraya Jala Nigam Limited (VJNL) for the project. However, the state government had admitted to taking up work in 213.23 acres without permission. Forest authorities had put the extent of the violation at 266.87 acres or 62% of the land.

The state government recently claimed that the violations were primarily due to the incorrect revenue records. VJNL had replied that lands under cultivation and possession of farmers with valid documents, later turned out to be forest lands. Therefore, except for violation of a very small patch of land in Ramadevarahall forest in 2019, other violations were inadvertent errors.

The committee, however, deferred the proposal and sought a detailed report on the matter from state forest officers as well as the regional office of the MoEF&CC. It specifically sought to know whether work in over 200 acres was attributable to the VJNL. “The report should be conclusive about the violation and the responsible agencies. In case the Regional Office, Bengaluru, opts for an independent report, he shall be at liberty to do so,” it said.
The state government was told to consider consulting the Wildlife Institute of India to vet the wildlife mitigation plan. The plan is yet to get the approval of the state forest department.