Congress MLA Sowmya Reddy announced her decision to leave the Karnataka State Wildlife Board on Saturday over the controversial Hubli-Ankola railway project which is proposed to cut through the Western Ghats. Even as the project has been facing stiff criticism from the public, the Karnataka government, led by Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa, has decided to go ahead with it, clearing it for construction activities.
The railway project will cut through the protected forests of the Western Ghats. Over 1.73 lakh trees will be cut, across nearly 600 hectares of forest land. The proposed railway line will cut through Kali Tiger Reserve and Bedthi Conservation Reserve.
In a Facebook post, the Congress MLA wrote, ”I have decided to resign from the state wildlife board because the board with the leadership of Hon’ble CM BS Yediyurappa has decided to implement the Hubli-Ankola Railway project which is harmful to the environment and wildlife. I am not against development, but I cannot support something that is harmful for the environment where there was an alternative. My conscience will not allow me to. Natural disasters in the recent past have shown us that nothing is bigger than preserving the existing nature.” (sic)
Her post also carried a quote, attributed to a Native American prophecy: “Only when the last tree has died, the last fish caught, and the last river poisoned, will we realise that we cannot eat money.”
There is currently a petition to protect the forests and its ecology, with over 2,000 signatures at the time of writing.
The Karnataka government has been taking a series of decisions which are set to disturb the ecological balance in the environment.
The Bannerghatta National Park, a wildlife reserve which hosts tigers and leopards, has recently been notified to be reduced by 100 square kilometres.
The BJP government and Forest Minister Anand Singh have been quick to table and pass construction and road-widening projects that threaten thousands of trees around Bengaluru. Environmentalists and citizens have pointed out that this would adversely affect the climate in Bengaluru and Karnataka as a whole, which has already seen two major cyclones last year.