State govt likely to reject Kasturirangan report, says CM Siddaramaiah

Bengaluru, NT Bureau: Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said that the State government favoured rejecting the Kasturirangan report but would discuss the document at length before officially declaring the same. He made the disclosure in response to a mediaperson in Madikeri town of Kodagu district on Friday.

The reporter asked the CM if implementation of the Kasturirangan report would be an apt solution to the landslides in Wayanad district which has taken 330 lives so far. Developmental activities, including laying of infrastructure and exploitation of resources, apart from heavy rains are cited as reasons for the landslides.

The Kasturirangan report is the successor to the Madhav Gadgil report for the conservation of the Western Ghats which had suggested making 64 per cent of the mountain range an Ecologically Sensitive Area (ESA) not open to resource exploitation.

The Kasturirangan report brought the number down to 37 per cent after complaints of environmental idealism taking precedence over livelihood issues plagued the earlier report’s recommendations.

However, the Kasturirangan report has also failed to satisfy very many people.

“The State government is of the opinion that we should reject the Kasturirangan report. However, our Forest Minister Eshwar Khandre insists that we discuss it at length before going ahead with the decision but we had taken an (initial) decision to reject the Kasturirangan report,” Siddaramaiah said but added that the State government wouldn’t be hasty and overzealous in exploiting resources.