Kasturirangan report may displace 85,000 families in Uttara Kannada, Assembly told

Karnataka Legislative Assembly Deputy Speaker Mankal Vaidya told the House on Tuesday that residents of Uttara Kannada could be forced to migrate to neighbouring Goa if the State does not safeguard their interests while dealing with the Kasturirangan report.

Speaking during a debate on the report's implications for livelihoods, Mr. Vaidya, who represents the Bhatkal constituency, said more than half of the district's 14 lakh people live in the Western Ghats region and stand to be affected if the recommendations are implemented in their current form.

He said the district's residents had already surrendered large tracts of land for major projects, including the Konkan Railway, the Seabird naval base, the Kaiga Nuclear Power Station, five hydel projects and national highways. Nearly 21,000 acres were acquired for the Seabird project alone, he added.

According to Mr. Vaidya, towns such as Bhatkal, Sirsi and Honnavar would be affected under the report's present form, and more than 85,000 families could face displacement. "We will have to move either to the 13 islands or to Goa," he said.

A State Cabinet meeting held in Mangaluru last week proposed developing tourism on 13 islands along the State's coast.

Mr. Vaidya urged the State government to oppose the recommendations before the National Green Tribunal, saying the people of Uttara Kannada deserved justice. "Because of multiple projects and now the Kasturirangan report, no one is living with happiness in the district," he said.

He also questioned the Forest Department's contribution to conservation, arguing that farmers and local communities had traditionally protected forests while sharing produce from their farms with wildlife. Farmers, he said, were losing a significant share of their coconut and jackfruit yields to crop damage caused by wildlife.

BJP member S. Suresh Kumar suggested that the Chief Ministers of all six Western Ghats States meet and arrive at a unanimous position on implementing the recommendations. Noting that the region's population was declining, he said several houses in the coastal and Malnad areas had effectively become old-age homes, and stressed the need to protect local livelihoods.