Activists in Kodagu have another reason to demand hill council for the region.
Activists in Kodagu have another reason to demand hill council for the region.
Stating that the Unesco proposal to create a large biodiversity region would stall its development, the Malenadu Janti Kriya Samithi (Malnad Joint Action Committee) has said that the government should first consider its demand for a hill council for Kodagu district and other hilly taluks in different districts of the Western Ghats.
The state government and Centre have been completely ignoring the needs of human settlements in the hilly areas. With the amalgamation of wildlife preserves and reserve forests for the creation of biodiversity region and elephant corridor, our district will be pushed to oblivion. If the government still wanted to create the biodiversity region, it must first grant hill council for the district,” said Ajit Bopaiah, a member of the committee.
The demand for hill council is on the lines of the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council. Speaking about the issue, a member of the committee said, “This is not mutiny. Kodagu as a hilly district has not done much progress under the state government. It is time we decide our own fate.”
The proposal to join all the wildlife preserves in 15 districts to create a large biodiversity region and elephant corridor will affect 2.2 lakh people living in over 220 villages in the fringe areas.
The organisation said that there are legal and constitutional issues in the proposal. Pradeep Kumar KL, counsel for the committee, said, “There are at least 15 taluks in the seven districts in Malnad areas in Western Ghats region which need special status as they are hopeless minority. The decision to create the biodiversity region and elephant corridor will be an infringement of our rights. Therefore, we have decided to demand the government to enact Article 371 of the Constitution to preserve the life, culture, language under various provisions of the Constitution including 342, 330, 335, 338, 345, 244, 244(2) and 275(1) and include hilly areas into the 9th Schedule and community rights as per 6th Schedule of the Constitution.”
Three wildlife reserves - Brahmagiri (181 sq km), Pushpagiri (102 sq km) and Talacauvery (105 sq km) — will be merged to create Greater Talacauvery Wildlife Reserve. Further, reserve forests, elephant corridors, tiger reserves national parks will make up the biodiversity region which will stretch from Wayanad in Kerala to Anashi tiger reserve in Uttara Kannada.
Another member of the committee said that the move for hill council will be hampered if the large biodiversity region is constituted.
“There should be not less than 10 hill councils as each area right from Wayanad to Malnad areas in seven districts have their own culture, language and socio-economic diversity. The purpose of having autonomous hill councils will be defeated if it were to be one large entity,” said Ashok Subbiah.
Reacting to a query by this correspondent, chief minister DV Sadananda Gowda said that the creation of the large biodiversity region needed further clarification.
“It is a Unesco project and there are state issues that have to be examined by our law department in relation to the central acts. Therefore, the question of reacting to the demands of the local people does not arise at this point of time,” said the chief minister.
The committee is aware of the legal positioning of the demand.
“We were also in consultation with the legal experts and are studying the autonomy levels of the existing hill councils in the country,” said Pradeep Kumar, legal expert of the committee.
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