Why are our leaders bent on wasting money?

By Bhamy V Shenoy

Way back in the early 90s, when Dr. Kushalappa was conservator of forests in Mysuru, some efforts were made to green Chamundi Hills using a Norwegian grant. One wonders why our leaders did not think of greening the hills themselves and had to depend on foreign aid. However, as early as in 1994, Karnataka government had signed a BOT (build, operate and transfer) contract for constructing a ropeway on Chamundi Hills with M/S Sikka Traders for Rs. 6.5 crore. It was such a ‘secret’ contract that Mysureans came to know about it only in 2005 and that too when construction was about to start. Then the civil society headed by Mysore Grahakara Parishat launched the ‘Save Chamundi’ movement. Luckily, the project was dropped.

However when funds became available under JNNURM, efforts to revive the project were made again in 2009. Once again MGP protested and succeeded in stopping it, only for it to be revived in 2012 by Industries Minister Nirani, and then by Tourism Minister Yogeshwar in 2021. During these times, a project to provide a canopy on the steps leading to the hill top was mooted and dropped after protest.

It’s not clear why ministers are bent on constructing a ropeway which is economically unattractive, environmentally unfriendly and politically controversial.However serious attempts by the government started in 2016 to create a concrete jungle in the name of promoting tourism which laid the foundation for the extensive vandalism of the hill. It consisted of multilevel parking (600 cars), a commercial complex (116 shops), a dormitory, covered queue line for pilgrims, costing about Rs. 80 crore. The government could easily raid the temple offerings to meet construction costs and did not have to depend on the budget.

Soon after Mysoreans came to know of these grandiose plans, NGOs led by MGP along with Let Us Do It started to oppose. Following events give some of the significant steps taken by NGOs. On May 19, 2016 when the then Ecology Minister Ramanath Rai visited Mysuru, he first refused to talk to NGOs and when confronted told us that he did not know anything about the project. A public debate was held on May 27, 2016 in which experts said why such construction will harm the ecosysytem of the hill.

On May 29, 2016 a large number of protestors met at the bottom of Chamundi and climbed the 1000 steps to create public awareness in which members of the Royal family and many leading people of the city participated to express their support to stop the construction.

On June 18, 2016, a candlelight march to save the Hill was organised in the city. From the debates and meetings it became clear that the state government was in violation of the Forest Conservation Act since the concerned forest official had not given his approval. Since 1928, Chamundi Hill Complex has been classified as a Reserve Forest. Since there has been no Environmental Impact Assessment prior to the starting of the construction, it is a violation of the Environmental Act. In the event a less restrictive and considerably less complex Environmental Management Plan was developed to hoodwink the public Despite all these facts, no government officials raised their finger to stop the work.

During these protests I had predicted that multi-level parking will become an eye sore. Looks like that day may not be too far. According to a rough estimate provided by Builders Association, construction cost of the multi-level parking complex is only around Rs. 40 crore while the sanctioned amount was Rs. 60 crore!

Despite EMP having a clause that no dynamite will be used, there was extensive use while this has disturbed the wild animals and birds, it might have had impact on subsoil and temple buildings.

MGP approached the National Green Tribunal which turned it down on some technicalities. MGP’s effort in filing a PIL in the Supreme Court did not produce any useful results. SC directed the Ministry of Environment to examine and give the report. As expected, the experts who came did not find any problem with the project. We tried our best to convince them to the contrary. Only success NGOs got was that the originally suggested four-lane project was dropped.

Now under Pilgrimage Rejuvenation and Spiritual Heritage Augmentation Drive (PRASHAD), further vandalism of the hill may happen. The proposal submitted by the Tourism Department of Karnataka instead of promoting spiritual tourism is hell bent on promoting commercial tourism. Rs 100 crores will be spent to “beautify” the hill top with “architectural marvels” instead of greening the hill.

Instead of developing a Mysuru Model which others could adapt, Hampi and Tirupati models are suggested under PRASHAD. These two have no relevance to Chamundi, which is a small hill. PRASHAD suggests that stakeholders be