The Silenced Valley

It was a pleasant summer day indeed, in early March this year. I was amidst the hamlets in the Sharavati river valley in the hilly Western Ghats of Karnataka. Ugadi, the festival signalling the onset of spring was just a few days away. The floor of the woods was still green and the streams in the shallow valley adjacent to betel-nut orchards had gentle flow. The chirp of the birds perching on trees was soothing. It all looked like a perfect Malanad dream day. But it was not. The panic had already pierced in households and people were grim. The reason was evident. The killer Kyasanur Forest Disease (KFD) had returned, before people had even come out of the shock it created last year. Many had died then and hundreds suffered for months in distant hospitals. It appeared again this time with more vigour. I could not do much beyond consoling them and convincing them to get vaccine shots and not to go out in the forest without applying insect repellent oil to keep the vector ticks way. It is over a month now. God only knows their misery, which must have only heightened with the Covid-19 lockdown. The new pandemic virus seems to have silenced the cry of those affected by the endemic KFD virus.

The State seems to have forgotten this disease, which has otherwise been troubling the Western Ghats states for over six decades. Except the fact that it spreads from dying monkeys, nothing further has been understood about it all these years. All that the government does is to preach to the forest dwellers not to go out in the woods during winter and summer, when the virus becomes virulent. But the peasants, labourers and the tribals cannot afford to be at home all the time. They inevitably go out, get exposed to the ticks that carry the virus, and fall victim to it. In-depth epidemiological studies would have revealed the pathogen’s lifecycle, which might have been activated by sudden loss of evergreen forest in the region. But no one among the research community, the healthcare industry or the government itself has found it worth investigating!

For the Sharavati river valley, one of the hotspots of KFD, such apathy of the government isn’t new. In the catchment of this short but vibrant perennial river that flows in Shimoga and Uttara Kannada districts of Karnataka, vast tracts of pristine tropical forest have already been submerged in Madenoor, Linganamakki and Gerusoppe hydro-electric dams. The unique ecosystem with its immense biodiversity got drowned in reservoirs and their ecosystem services vanished before they were understood. Many families displaced from those projects are still struggling to get their rights on land and are living the lives of the landless poor in Shettihalli Sanctuary, a few kilometres upstream. Life is still dark for these eco-refugees, under the shadow of the project that produces light for others.

The thickly wooded river’s watershed should have been cared for better, at least for the sake of ensuring sustained power production in these projects. But research findings show that it is otherwise. Large chunks of forest in Sagara, Hosanagara and Theerthahalli blocks were cut to make way for raising Eucalypts and Acacia plantations for the purpose of feeding industries. Thousands of hectares of dense ‘Kaan’ forests are being encroached upon by the powerful, by exploiting the ‘Akrama–Sakrama’ scheme. And the illegal quarries that are actually run on licence meant for stone-crushing are spreading all around. This trio of industrial forests, land grabbing and the quarry are together turning Sharavati valley barren. The principle of ‘payment for ecosystem services’, of course, gets discussed in policy circles, but neither Karnataka Power Corporation Limited (KPCL), that runs these power projects, nor the Karnataka Forest Department, that owns the forests, have thought of applying that. It is only the farmers who, trapped between encroachers and monoculture plantations, bear the brunt of forest loss through summer fire, loss of soil fertility and water shortage. Unscientific land use is taking a toll of both the local ecology and economy.

Still, the ‘development machine’ does not take rest in the valley. KPCL has recently proposed a new Underground Power Plant project -- in the heart of the Sharavati Sanctuary! It is, in fact, one of the remaining habitats of ecological niches like Myristica swamps and endangered species like the Lion Tailed Macaque. While the very need for such a devastating project in this Protected Area is being questioned by experts, the National Wildlife Board (NWB) took no time to give its green signal for survey and geo-technical investigations! This statutory body, under the Ministry of Environment and Forest, which is meant to achieve the objectives of the Wildlife Protection Act (1972) gave this permission through a brief online meeting under the cover of the Covid-19 lockdown. More than 200 hectares of dense forest would be cut, fragmenting the vast wildlife corridor. “Disasters of climate change may force the rulers to take ecologically sound economic decisions”, predicted the Nobel laureate economist WD Nordhaus. But the ‘market forces’, backed by political leaders, do not seem to learn lessons, even from a global crisis like the present pandemic.

Neither the endemic virus nor the mega developmental projects seem willing to spare this precious river valley. As the forest continues to get fragmented, the valley will soon lose its homeostasis and thereby its carrying capacity. The ‘silence’ of this spring may deaden into a silence forever, as is happening elsewhere in the Western Ghats.

(The writer is Director, Centre for Conservation Biology and Sustainable Development, Sirsi)