BENGALURU
Wildlife conservationist Giridhar Kulkarni has urged the Forest Department to reject the proposed 10-MW mini-hydel project across the Kumaradhara River at Somwarpet, warning that it would cause irreversible damage to the Western Ghats through landslides, flooding, forest fragmentation, and wildlife loss.
Over 15 years after the state government faced a legal battle in the Karnataka High Court over similar projects, a Hassan-based company has submitted a fresh proposal for the hydel plant in the Madikeri territorial division—an ecologically sensitive region already under pressure from multiple development activities.
Kulkarni, in a letter to divisional and circle-level forest officers, pointed out that the proposed project area lies close to the Pushpagiri Wildlife Sanctuary, a critical elephant habitat and home to several Schedule I species under the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972. The site, he noted, is just 2.5 km from the sanctuary boundary and likely falls within the Eco-Sensitive Zone (ESZ) notified on June 28, 2017.
He further reminded authorities that in Writ Petition 9333 of 2009, the Forest Department and the state government had given an affidavit before the High Court, assuring that no new mini-hydel projects would be allowed in the Western Ghats. Following the court’s direction, about ten such projects were cancelled.
Allowing a new project now, he said, would violate the government’s commitment to the court and undermine conservation efforts, urging officials to protect the Western Ghats and reject the proposal outright.
