Kodavas divided on banning tourism in the district
The onslaught of rain fury,water blast and landslips seem to be over now for the time being although the ill effects of the same are far from being over in the district.Although various logic,version and defence are being put forth for the present traumatic consequences there doesn't look to be any unanimity over regulating the overcrowded tourist populace forget pleading for a total ban on tourism activities.
Pudiyatanda Ganapathy resides in Somwarpet with his wife and son while his aged parents are hell bent to stay put at their plantations engrossed in beautiful landscapes close by to equally picturesque Kotebetta Shiva shrine.The temple on a monolith huge rock also boasts of picturesque surroundings and gives you a panoramic view of the Pushpagiri range of mountains on the pristine Western Ghats.
In fact these evergreen forests are now a bone of contention between the environmentalists and the coffee planters,who have now literally denuded most portions of once thick forest cover.It is in this context Pudiyatanda Ganapathy's utterances make note worthy.
He strongly believes:The path of nature itself has been deviated much at the mercy of those people who have converted the land use for paddy fields,coffee plantations,sites,resorts,
Let the government give us alternate land.We are prepared to shift from here but not interested in monetary compensation as it leads you nowhere while the green cover cannot be measured by money to whatever extent.Government should immediately enforce the Kasturirangan committee report if at it's serious of restoring normalcy in the chaotic region,he argues.
To establish the bonding between the nature and its inhabitants he recalls the recent episode when with great difficulty he somehow managed to shift his parents from the farm to his Somwarpet house.Again once normalcy was restored in spite of washed off road stretches at many a place they went back and it's literally impossible to hold them back.
His parents lost a few goats and some cows were washed away.But the unexplained love to the mute cattle was such that they never bothered to listen to their own son to stay back and just made it fast back again to the mountains!
Srikanth Ravi is another planter hailing from Hattihole near Somwarpet owning around 30 acres of land.He also had about 30 labourers working on his plantation.Incidentally he wasn't in the estate when the tragedy struck the land.Fortunately the labourers reasonably thought it fit to move over to the relief centres before the calamity struck the place.
However the dog wasn't interested to move along with the labourers as it appeared to be more interested in guarding the owner's house rather than flee away from there.At last it relented and headed to the rescue centre.But the damage was already done as the only road available to his farm was washed off.He's now camping temporarily at Baboo Somaiah's estate in Mekeri village near to Madikeri.
But what he narrates about the plight of chitra Subbaiah is much more horrifying.Two big mountains have caved in submerging two planter's houses and engulfing around 25 acres of plantations.Initially Chitra Subbaiah who was staying alone after her husband's demise was reluctant to move to safer place following the heavy downpour.Somehow the labourers were successful in persuading her to move and she saved her life.
But after the incessant rains gave a halt the onlookers who managed to reach the spot were in for a big shock.It's with great difficulty that they could trace the remains of the house.But a big lake on the top of a nearby hill remained intact although it was empty.
Meanwhile nature had made its fatal impact felt as the mountains had become paddy fields while the paddy fields or wetlands were fully covered with huge layers of mud thus making it unfit for cultivation of any crops,forget paddy!
Pudiyatanda Ganapathy resides in Somwarpet with his wife and son while his aged parents are hell bent to stay put at their plantations engrossed in beautiful landscapes close by to equally picturesque Kotebetta Shiva shrine.The temple on a monolith huge rock also boasts of picturesque surroundings and gives you a panoramic view of the Pushpagiri range of mountains on the pristine Western Ghats.
In fact these evergreen forests are now a bone of contention between the environmentalists and the coffee planters,who have now literally denuded most portions of once thick forest cover.It is in this context Pudiyatanda Ganapathy's utterances make note worthy.
He strongly believes:The path of nature itself has been deviated much at the mercy of those people who have converted the land use for paddy fields,coffee plantations,sites,resorts,
Let the government give us alternate land.We are prepared to shift from here but not interested in monetary compensation as it leads you nowhere while the green cover cannot be measured by money to whatever extent.Government should immediately enforce the Kasturirangan committee report if at it's serious of restoring normalcy in the chaotic region,he argues.
To establish the bonding between the nature and its inhabitants he recalls the recent episode when with great difficulty he somehow managed to shift his parents from the farm to his Somwarpet house.Again once normalcy was restored in spite of washed off road stretches at many a place they went back and it's literally impossible to hold them back.
His parents lost a few goats and some cows were washed away.But the unexplained love to the mute cattle was such that they never bothered to listen to their own son to stay back and just made it fast back again to the mountains!
Srikanth Ravi is another planter hailing from Hattihole near Somwarpet owning around 30 acres of land.He also had about 30 labourers working on his plantation.Incidentally he wasn't in the estate when the tragedy struck the land.Fortunately the labourers reasonably thought it fit to move over to the relief centres before the calamity struck the place.
However the dog wasn't interested to move along with the labourers as it appeared to be more interested in guarding the owner's house rather than flee away from there.At last it relented and headed to the rescue centre.But the damage was already done as the only road available to his farm was washed off.He's now camping temporarily at Baboo Somaiah's estate in Mekeri village near to Madikeri.
But what he narrates about the plight of chitra Subbaiah is much more horrifying.Two big mountains have caved in submerging two planter's houses and engulfing around 25 acres of plantations.Initially Chitra Subbaiah who was staying alone after her husband's demise was reluctant to move to safer place following the heavy downpour.Somehow the labourers were successful in persuading her to move and she saved her life.
But after the incessant rains gave a halt the onlookers who managed to reach the spot were in for a big shock.It's with great difficulty that they could trace the remains of the house.But a big lake on the top of a nearby hill remained intact although it was empty.
Meanwhile nature had made its fatal impact felt as the mountains had become paddy fields while the paddy fields or wetlands were fully covered with huge layers of mud thus making it unfit for cultivation of any crops,forget paddy!
Srikanth Ravi claims:The Harangi dam was full till brim due to the cloud blast but water was not released from the reservoir for reasons best known to the concerned officials.As a result the pressure of back waters started building up while the water streams below the ground got blocked and started blasting over ground.Large fountains erupted from the mountains while water started gushing in dried bore wells.
In our region the seasonal rainfall used to be to the proportion of 65 inches but we experienced that quantum of rains in August itself.From 15-18 August itself 35 inches of rainfall was recorded and already about 150 inches of rainfall has already taken place while the rainy season itself is yet to be over.He also has an interesting point to make:In Bhagamandala region the average rainfall is to the extent of 300 inches but no catastrophe has taken place because the soil there is used to with holding the water capacity.
Apart from his assertions on the nature fury he's candid over the Kasturirangan committee report: Kasturirangan committee recommendations need to be implemented if at all we wish to protect the forests.The timber mafia is stretching its tentacles far and wide added to huge corruption of the forest department officials.It has become difficult to even cut grown up trees in the farm for our own domestic use.
On the whole the planters' community looks to be divided over the possible reasons for the man made disaster and ways to prevent such calamities in the near future.Many still continue to argue with strange reasons like landslides have also taken place in dense forests.But what they fail to understand is also the reality that not much damage has been done to the nature there in comparison with that of in areas having human interference.
Earth has given it's judgement as to where the power of humans remain.But if people think they can still have their own say then nature cannot be found fault with.
-Manohar Yadavatti
Comments
Post a Comment