Daijiworld Media Network—Udupi (HB)
Udupi, Nov 30: A public interaction was held at Atal Bihari Vajpayee Auditorium on the sensitive regions of the Western Ghats on Saturday November 29.
The public criticized the Kasturi Rangan Report and said that the concerned department has marked 10 km as sensitive and demanded that the border be clearly specified.
The villagers were unanimously against the report as they believed that both humans and nature should cohabit. The people claimed that they had taken a map through satellite and not by personal spot inspection. They alleged that the report specified a larger area than expected.
The opinion was that there was a need to have a meeting at the rural level to understand the report better. If the demarcation goes up to 16 km, farmers will lose their fertile land.
One person said that the Kerala government had considered the opinions of 123 villages by providing appropriate information, but in Karnataka, monopoly was being shown in this matter.
Approximately 1,576 villages come under the Western Ghats of which 35 are in Udupi.
The representatives came from Kundapura, Karkala, and Hebri. Dr R Vishal presided over the programme.
Karkala MLA Sunil Kumar, Kundapur MLA Halady Srinivas, D K Deekshith, state committee, and Bipin Singh were present.