Daijiworld Media Network - Bengaluru (SP)

Bengaluru, Mar 21: In spite of strong opposition by the environmentalists and forest department, Karnataka State Wildlife Board which met on Friday March 20, gave its nod for laying railway line between Ankola and Hubballi. This proposal was hanging fire since the last several decades because of damage the proposed line will create to ecology and environment.

A week back, the board had decided to drop the project. But now, the meeting of the board decided to reverse the said decision, and recommend to the centre to withdraw the previous recommendation and give the go ahead for the railway line.

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The meeting which was chaired by chief minister B S Yediyurappa, was attended by industries minister Jagadish Shettar, labour minister Shivaram Hebbar and former minister R V Deshpande. All of them insisted that the project should go ahead at any cost. Jagadish Shettar said that this project is very much necessary for the development of the state, particularly northern Karnataka, where industrial development will get a fillip and export industry can flourish.

Angered by the permission given for the project despite opposition from environmentalists, member of the board and MLA Soumya Reddy resigned from the board to register her protest. The environmentalists have been pointing out that the entire stretch of the railway line between Ankola and Hubballi will pass through the Western Ghats, where about 595 acres of forest will be destroyed, and five lac trees would be uprooted. The area is home to bio diversity and elephant corridor, where animals which are on the verge of extinction also live.

Jagadish Shettar said that a few opposed the project but felt that benefit by way of industries and export oriented industries outweigh the disadvantages.