HEN a bunch of harried villagerstouched base with a group of activistsin early December last year, it tooktime for the latter to let matters sinkin. The villagers had brought in newsabout how they were losing out theirpasture land to so-called infrastruc-ture projects, and gradually being de-prived of their livelihoods too.

The villagers in question were fromthe Challakere taluk of Chitradurga dis-trict, and the activists included thosefrom city-based Environment SupportGroup (ESG). At that time, no one hadany clue what was going on in thattaluk, some 200km from Bangalore.

It was only in the second half of Jan-uary that Leo Saldanha of ESG and hiscolleagues were able to visit Chal-lakere to take stock of things. It didtake time to piece things together.What Saldanha and others ended upwith was big — certainly in terms ofthe land that was involved. They fig-ured out that some 10,000 acres ofAmrit Mahal kaval (traditional pasturegrassland ecosystems and districtforests) had been diverted for a vari-ety of defence, nuclear, industrial andinfrastructure projects.

If these facts were not flabbergast-ing enough, what did come as theshocker of them all was the revelationthat all the project proponents hadbeen provided with ecologically pre-cious land at a pittance — Rs 30,000-35,000 per acre. Quite a gift, that.

All this diversion of forest land hadtaken place between 2008 and 2010,and yet no one in the public domainhad any clue about the grand designsof the authorities. It was as if pains hadbeen taken to ensure that matters re-mained in the dark. Surreptitiously, onemight say. The entire exercise had beenundertaken secretively and withoutany consent from panchayats or localcommunities, and in comprehensiveviolation of laws protecting forests, bio-diversity, wetlands, environment, etc.

In February, on behalf of the localimpacted communities, ESG ap-proached the National Green Tribunal(South Zone) questioning the diver-sion of the grassland ecosystems to avariety of high impact nuclear, de-fence, industrial and infrastructure de-velopments. The applicants prayed forinterim relief of stay on the ongoingactivities and for allowing access tograzing pastures for local pastoralists.

The Tribunal repeatedly sought theresponse of the Karnataka govern-ment and Union ministry of environ-ment and forests (MoEF), includingeven directing the state's principalsecretary for the environment de-partment to appear in person on

March 13. The directions went un-heeded. Finally, the Tribunal on March21 set up a two-member expert com-mittee to study the ecological and en-vironmental consequences of the di-version of land that had taken placein the area.

The bench comprising Justice MChockalingam and Prof R Nagendran,in fact, observed, "in the consideredopinion of the Tribunal, the counterof the respondents have to be takeninto consideration before deciding thequestion whether to grant an order ofinterim relief or not and hence, (thecase hearing) has got to be adjournedgranting time till April 15, 2013 to filetheir counter. It is made clear that ifthe counter is not filed by any of therespondents, it will be taken that theyhave no counter to offer.” The expertswould be S Ravichandra Reddy, retiredprofessor of ecology with BangaloreUniversity, and KV Anantharaman,

deputy director with the Central SilkBoard, Bangalore.

The facilities in the eye of the storminclude a nuclear enrichment centre,a full-fledged airport and drone test-ing facility, a synchroton, a variety ofmanufacturing industries, and a spacetechnology centre. All these have a sig-nificant and irreversible impact on theenvironment and biodiversity, and onlocal impacted communities, as theyare classified as High Impact 'Red Cat-egory' projects by environmental reg-ulatory authorities.

All these projects, ESG contends,have been sanctioned throwing allnorms to the winds. In doing so, theKarnataka government blatantly vio-lated provisions of the EnvironmentProtection Act, 1986, Forest Conser-vation Act, 1980, Water (Preventionand Control of Pollution) Act, 1974, Air(Prevention and Control of Pollution)Act, 1980, Environment Impact As-sessment Notification, 2006, Biologi-cal Diversity Act, 2002, Panchayat RajAct, 1992, Nagarpalika Act, 1992,Scheduled Tribes and Other Tradi-tional Forest Dwellers (Recognition ofForest Rights) Act, 2006, and variousother laws relating to land use plan-ning, planned and democratic devel-opment for securing the equitable

rights of all.To start with, it is the land itself

which comes into the spotlight by de-fault. All kaval lands in Karnataka fallunder the ambit of Rule 33 of the Kar-nataka State Forest Rules, 1969, whichsays, “The rules for the managementof district forests shall, mutatis mu-tandis, apply to Amrit Mahal Kavalswhich mean and include the land as-signed by the government for the pas-turage of Amrit Mahal cattle ownedby the government.”

This memory recall itself means thatthe grasslands, that are designated asdistrict forests, have been diverted tonon-forest purposes in absolute con-travention of Forest Conservation Act1980, Forest Rights Act 2006, and oth-er applicable laws. Unconfirmed re-ports suggest that more such land andabutting areas are likely to be divertedfor subsequent urbanisation and in-frastructure development.

According to ESG, environmentaland social consequences of suchtransfer and diversion of grasslandshave not in the least been surveyed,appreciated and understood as ismandated by the Environment Pro-tection Act 1986, the Wildlife Protec-tion Act 1972, Biological Diversity Act2002, Forest Conservation Act 1980,Water (Prevention and Control of Pol-lution) Act 1974, and Air (Preventionand Control of Pollution) Act 1981.

Those who have benefited from thisinclude the Defence Research Devel-opment Organisation (DRDO), IndianInstitute of Science (IISc), BhabhaAtomic Research Centre, Indian SpaceResearch Organisation (ISRO), and theKarnataka Small Scale Industries De-velopment Corporation. In simpleterms, these are not organisations thatone would to take head-on. The DRDOis already said to have built a 12 feethigh wall, now running to a length of28km. The IISc too has set up a widerange of infrastructure and com-menced research and extension oper-ations. The Karnataka Housing Boardalso has begun forming residential lay-outs. Work's in progress there.

Too many questions abound — fromthe alleged violations of environ-mental and revenue laws to the ap-parent secrecy with which the dealswere conducted. It is not the illegali-ties alone that need to be questioned;it is the terrain itself that has been indire need of protection — needless tosay, by the state government itself.

It is common knowledge that theseecologically sensitive grasslandecosystems serve as a special and crit-ical habitat to a variety of flora andfauna. Large herds of the highly

threatened antelope species such asthe black buck (Antilope cervicapra)graze these grasslands, and theecosystem is a typical habitat for crit-ically endangered birds such as greatIndian bustard (Ardeotis nigriceps) andlesser florican (Sypheotides indicus).

These grassland ecosystems havefor centuries supported the rearing ofdrought tolerant locally-bred varietyof Amrit Mahal cattle, besides pro-viding a wide range of livelihoods op-portunities for communities in about60 directly impacted villages locatedaround the kaval. It was therefore, notwithout reason, that the Karnatakagovernment had designated suchkaval land as district forests per theKarnataka Forest Rules 1969 and theirprotection was made sacrosanct by di-rections of the Karnataka High Courtin 2002 and subsequent orders of the

state.The Challakere kaval land ranges

over 12,000 acres, and constitute thelast remaining large contiguous semi-arid grassland in Karnataka. The state,which boasted at the time of inde-pendence of possessing about4,00,000 acres of kaval grasslands, isnow, per the forest department sub-missions to the Supreme Court, leftwith only about 45,000 acres of suchhabitat. With 9,273 acres confirmedto have been diverted for other pur-poses, it is a no-brainer to assert thatthe demise of these grasslands is nigh.

ESG produced other evidence aswell. Despite statutory notices of vi-olation of environmental laws fromthe Karnataka State Pollution ControlBoard (KSPCB), issued about two yearsago, none of the project proponentscomplied with any of the mandatory

environmental and forest clearancenorms and standards. Instead, a vari-ety of project activities (as mentionedearlier) have commenced.

Villagers have been hard-hit al-ready. There is no water for the cattleto drink. And access to pasture landhas been considerably restricted too.The communities, as a result, are find-ing it hard to survive, what with theburden of loans wearing heavily ontheir shoulders. A representative ofthe kaval communities, Karianna ofDodda Ullarphi, narrated the travailsof his people to a tiny group of jour-nalists in Bangalore earlier this week.

Karianna and his people are hopingthat the lands that have been snatchedaway will soon be restored. But beforethat, the state government will haveto do some answering.

subir.ghosh@dnaindia.net

OOrrggaanniissaattiioonn

Defence ResearchDevelopment Organisation

Indian Institute of Science

Bhabha Atomic ResearchCentre

Indian Space ResearchOrganisation

Karnataka Small ScaleIndustries DevelopmentCorporation

Sagitaur Ventures India PvtLtd

VViillllaaggee nnaammee

Varavu kaval andKhudapura

Khudapura

Ullarti kaval andKhudapura

Ullarti kaval andKhudapura

Ullarti kaval andKhudapura

Khudapura

EExxtteenntt ooff llaanndd iinn aaccrreess

4000 and 290 respectively(total 4290)

1500

1410 and 400 respectively(total 1810)

473 and 100 respectively(total 573)

250 and 50 respectively (total 300)

1250

PPuurrppoossee

Advanced R&D complex, a 3.5 kmrunway and test centre for long-endurance ( 48-72 hours) UAVs andUCAVs

Synchrotron, Energy Research Centreand Advanced Aerospace ResearchCentre

Special Material Enrichment Facility(Uranium)

Spacecraft technologies

Various industrial ancillary units

Integrated Solar Park Developmentalong with Grid Connected 25 MWSolar PV Power Project

HOW THE LAND IN NUMBERS STACKS UP

Source:Environment Support Group (ESG)

GrassLANDgrab!GrassLANDgrab!

The South Zone bench of the National Green Tribunal last week constituted a fact-finding committee to determine the ecological and environmental consequences of largescale diversion of forest land to defence, nuclear and industrial projects in Chitradurga. What is shocking is that all the land diversion had taken place in absolute

secrecy and land was thrown away for a pittance, writes Subir Ghosh

W (Top): Amrit Mahalcattle grazing in theAmrit Mahal kavalpastures at Challakeretaluk, Chitradurgadistrict(Above): About 28 km ofhigh walls have beenbuilt around the AmritMahal kaval blockingaccess to the pastures.

Pics courtesy: Arjun Swaminathan

THE REGION THE CATTLE THE HERITAGE THE GRASSLANDSChitradurga district falls in thesseemmii--aarriidd rreeggiioonn of centralKarnataka and is known to be adistrict that is constantly affectedby lloonngg ppeerriiooddss ooff ddrroouugghhtt aannddmmiinniimmaall wwaatteerr sseeccuurriittyy. Theregion impacted by the projectsreceives very low rainfall, whichaverages to 45 cm annually.

Communities who have survivedextreme weather and climaticconditions have done so by wwiisseeaanndd iinntteelllliiggeenntt uussee of soil, water,forests, grasslands and such othernatural resources. With noperennial river here, water is an

extremely critical determinant ofhuman activity.

Pastoral and agrariancommunities that have thrived insuch conditions have done so overgenerations by building aa vvaarriieettyyooff ttrraaddiittiioonnaall aanndd ccuullttuurraall nnoorrmmssin the use and access of naturalresources that have promotedharmonious co-existence withvariety of wild fauna and flora.

AAcccceessss ttoo ccoommmmoonnss has been afundamental prerequisite anddeterminant to the survival ofthese communities and continuedevolution of wild flora and fauna.

The AAmmrriitt MMaahhaall ccaattttllee were grazedin different kavals based on theavailability of pasture in differentseasons. Amrit Mahal cattle wereppaattrroonniisseedd bbyy tthhee rrooyyaallttyy, mostnotably by Vijayanagar emperors, theWodeyars and later by Tipu Sultan.

This breed was prized for its speed,endurance, strength and unfailingloyalty. The bulls were used inwarfare as aa ffrroonnttlliinnee ooff ddeeffeennccee aannddttoo ttrraannssppoorrtt hheeaavvyy aarrmmyy eeqquuiippmmeenntton rough roads and difficult terrain.Their strength and ability towithstand drought make them equallywell suited to dry land agriculture.

During the Vijayanagar Empire,these grasslands spread over 4.15lakh acres. Management of pasturelands was assigned to sseerrvveeggaarraassaanndd kkaavvaallggaarraass, who heldadministrative and judicial powersover the lands they managed.

They were also responsible formaking logistic arrangements forthe nomadic cattle and the grazers.They ensured the well-being of theanimals bbyy pprreevveennttiinngg ggrraazziinngg,, ffiirree,,eennccrrooaacchhmmeenntt aanndd ffeelllliinngg ooff ttrreeeess inthe kaval. Even dung from thepasturelands was not allowed asthey believed that the dung

improves the quality of pasture.

After the management of the kavalswas taken over by the stategovernment in 1954, the post ofkavalgaras has mostly becomeceremonial. They are not paid anysalary for their services. Ascompensation, they are aallllootttteedd ffiivveeaaccrreess ooff aaggrriiccuullttuurraall llaanndd, whichthey can use only to cultivate foodand fodder crops.

Expenses they incur while on workfor registering cases or seekingmedical treatment are notrecompensed. Even so, manypassionately continue their work.

Grasslands are the 'common' lands of thecommunity and while there have been robusttraditional institutions ensuring theirsustainable management in the past, todaydue to take-over by government or breakdownof traditional institutions they are the respon-sibility of none. They are the most productiveecosystems in the subcontinent, but theybelong to all, are controlled by none, and theyhave no godfathers. Indeed they are oftenlooked at as 'wastelands' on which tree plant-ations have to be done, or which can be easilydiverted for other uses. Such diversions oftenput even more pressure on adjoiningecosystems for grazing and fodder removal.

Source:Task Force on Grasslands and Deserts for the Environmentand Forest Sector for the Eleventh Five Year Plan (2007-2012)

4 BANGALORE FRIDAY, MARCH 29, 2013

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