The train to ecological disaster

First, it was the shrinking of the buffer zone around Bannerghatta National Park (BNP) by 100 sq km to facilitate commercial activities like mining, and now the State Wildlife Board (SWB) headed by Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa has approved the Hubballi-Ankola railway line, an environmentally catastrophic project. The speed and perseverance with which the state government acted, with utter disregard to the concerns expressed by environmentalists, have raised questions about its commitment to protecting our forests, especially the Western Ghats. While Yediyurappa’s Forest Minister Anand Singh faces several cases under the Forest Act, the chief minister has also appointed a mining baron as a member of the SWB, ignoring the clear conflict of interest in both cases. Ironically, the SWB was convened for the second time in a fortnight after the project was strongly opposed by other members during the first meeting. This has also led to fears that the BJP government might push through the proposed railway line through another ecologically fragile district, Kodagu, despite stiff resistance from the local people.

The proposal to divert 727 hectares of verdant forest land for the Hubballi-Ankola rail project has been on the drawing board for about 12 year now, having been dropped and revived many times. Yediyurappa had mooted the land diversion project when he was the chief minister in 2008 too and then principal secretary (forest and ecology) Abhijit Dasgupta who had rejected it after a detailed study was summarily transferred. The National Tiger Conservation Authority had in its report stated that 80% of the rail line would pass through the Western Ghats which support several species of birds, animals, mammals and reptiles, besides being an elephant corridor. The Railway Ministry itself is not in favour of the project as it is commercially unviable, while the damage to environment far exceeds the perceived economic benefit. At least, two lakh trees will have to be cut for the project. The chief minister and his team, however, chose to rely on a report by an IISc professor which has been described by experts as highly unrealistic.

All hope is not lost yet as the proposal will now have to be cleared by the central forest and railway ministries. In the case of BNP, Yediyurappa had brought pressure on Union Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar who, in turn, issued a notification reducing the buffer zone. Javadekar should rise above party considerations and refuse to bow to such pressure tactics this time around. We have seen the havoc wreaked on Kodagu and Kerala recently by floods and landslides. Nature has sounded the warning bell, and ignoring it can only spell doom.