SAKLESHPUR : A three-member Central team led by Avinash M Kanfade, Conservator of Forests, Ministry of Environment and Forests, visited the Yettinahole Integrated Drinking Water project work site in Sakleshpur taluk on Monday.
The aim of the project is to provide drinking water to parched districts Tumakuru, Chitradurga, Chikkballapur, Kolar and Bengaluru Rural using 24 tmcft water from Western Ghats. The team visited Kadagaravalli and Aluvalli following a direction by the National Green Tribunal.
The tribunal has directed the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests to submit a detailed report on the acquired land, felled trees and impact on ecology in Western Ghats due to the project, following a petition filed by environmentalists H A Kishore Kumar, Purushotam T and K N Somashekar.
The team was told to submit the report to the tribunal before January 14 and it will hear the case again on January 16. The other team members are R Padmavathe, Deputy Conservator of Forests attached to Environment and Forest Department and senior scientist, South zone, Bengaluru, Thirunavukarasu.
The team members along with the applicants visited Kadagaravalli and farmers Vishvanath and Subbe Gowda said they have not yet got compensation for the agriculture land which was acquired for the project a year ago.
Avinash asked forest officials to allow farmers to air their grievances when one of the officials intervened.
Avinash expressed his concern over not making the study report and documents related to the project public. The environmentalists slammed the forest officials for misleading the team members with ‘false’ information.
Later, the team went to Aluvalli where Annegowda, a land owner, alleged that labourers have removed hundreds of axed trees from the area. Kumar and Somashekar alleged that the forest officials had misled the court by giving only positive reports.
The department had given a statement that they would fell only 6,000 trees, though they cut over 15,000 trees adjacent to Hiradanahalli, Maranahalli and Kadumane areas to lay water pipelines, sources said. The team members were confused with different statements by the forest officials, engineers and locals. The team will stay here for two days to study the ground realities.