Cauvery

Mayya

un

Sakleshpur

Kolar

Chikkaballapur

National Green Tribunal

NGT

Mangaluru

Cauvery river basin

Karnataka

Kerala

Tamil Nadu

Ministry of Environment and Forests

Netravathi

Netravati

Supreme Court

Dakshina Kannada

Swami

Swami Anand Swaroop

Ganga Sewa Samiti

environment

Anil Madhav Dave

Holla

Sahyadri Sanchya

Unesco

Dieppe

It would damage Western Ghats and reduce flow of the, says expertDr S G, former dean and professor of Water Resources Engineering, NITK, has labeled the Yettinahole project “misleading andacceptable”. The project, which aims to divert flood water from(West) to(East), is the bone of contention in four petitions that sit before the).Speaking at a meeting of activists held inon Thursday, Mayya said, “We have already seen the damage to the Cauvery basin this year. If the Yettinahole project comes up today, theregion will have more problems. Any damage to the Western Ghats will certainly reduce the flow of the Cauvery. The river basin is mainly fed from the catchment area inand. If I were in, I could have objected to this project on these lines. Nobody is looking at this issue. The project, presented by experts in Karnataka, is a shame to the engineering community,” he said.The hydrologist said the(MoEF) has been “totally misled”.“The government has presented it in the garb of an exclusive drinking water project. This is not true and the DPR makes this evident. The very fact is that out of 24 TMC ft, drinking water comprises only 15 TMC ft, while about 9 TMC ft is needed to fill the 495 irrigation tanks,” said Mayya.Speaking about the four petitions with the NGT, he said three of those argued on the basis of environmental issues, and hence are limited. “Our argument is not on environmental one, though it comes down to that. Our main argument is about our water rights, to use for the benefit ofriver basin stake-holders. We are arguing on the long-term water needs of our district or basin. We have taken our riparian rights,” he said. Theriver originates in the Western Ghats in Karnataka.“For inter-state river problems, we have the tribunal, which both states can approach, but for intra-state rivers there is no tribunal. If the concerned states do not bother with the water rights of river basin people, then these people will suffer great difficulties, because we have no platform on which to raise our grievances. At NGT, we have argued for our water rights, because that is the only platform we get on which to express our grievances. The next option is the,” he said. He added that the problems faced by the coastal region had not been addressed by Yettinahole “and this is going to be disastrous, not only for, but also for the people on the other side”.Referring to the recent Mahadayi judgment, he said, “The tribunal has exhaustively discussed and argued why water flowing in a river, adjoining the sea, cannot be called waste water. The water flowing in the river has a lot of functions to perform before it joins -- and even after it joins -- the sea. How can people call water going to the sea waste water,” he said.of, who was in Mangaluru on Thursday, decided to petition the MoEF, through which he intends to highlight the drawbacks in the DPR. “The project is false and is a disaster to the Western Ghats as well as Dakshina Kannada. In addition, I will also be speaking to theminister, a well-known river conservationist and environmentalist, about the project. I will tell the minister that the people of Kolar and Chikkaballapur are also opposing the same,” he said.The swami has been studying the project for the last year and has also visited Chikkaballapur and Kolar. He said about 95 per cent of the people are against the project: “The union government must intervene. It is not about Mangaluru or Dakshina Kannada. It is an issue about India. We will oppose the project and see to it that it is closed.”Dineshof the Team Mangaluru Kites for Hobby group, who is also the convenor of, working towards the preservation of the Western Ghats, will submit a letter highlighting the importance of conserving the biodiversity of Western Ghats to the assistant director general – Natural Sciences,, Paris, on behalf of the 19th International Kite Festival participants. The festival was held last month in, France. Holla said, “On getting to know about my work regarding protection of the environment, the mayor [of Dieppe] and organisers assured me that they would take up the issue at a global level. Sandrine Frebourg, organiser of the festival, and mayor Sébastien Jumel have agreed to bring up the issue of conserving biodiversity of the Western Ghats from a river diversion project [Yettinahole] with Unesco. A signature campaign was organised. A complete file on the project’s environmental impact on the Western Ghats was presented. The mayor has assured me help to reach out to Unesco,” he said.