State declines heritage tag for sites in Western Ghats

State declines heritage tag for sites in Western Ghats




BANGALORE: The State Government has decided to write to the Union Government refusing permission to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) to nominate 10 forests in the Talacauvery and Kudremukh regions of the Western Ghats for the prestigious World Heritage Site tag.

Minister for Forests C.H. Vijayashankar told presspersons here on Tuesday that the decision was taken following opposition to this move by “peoples' representatives such as MPs and MLAs”.

He said the Wildlife Institute of India (WII), on behalf of UNESCO, had written to the State Chief Wildlife Warden asking for the management plan for the 10 sites for nomination. These include four wildlife sanctuaries: Pushpagiri, Brahmagiri, Talacauvery and Someshwara; five reserve forests: Padinalknad, Someshwara, Agumbe, Kerti and Balahalli; and a national park: Kudremukh.

Mr. Vijayashankar said the proposal was opposed as it would mean a loss of government control over these forests. This would also violate the rights of tribal families living within the forest areas. Moreover, he added, the Government was not going to get any funds from UNESCO.

He argued that there was “no need” for UNESCO recognition when the Supreme Court, the Central Empowered Committee, the Union Government, the High Court of Karnataka and the Lokayukta were mandated to keep a watch on encroachment, construction or mining activity on forest land. He said that the Centre would be asked to remove these 10 forests from the WII list.

The Minister said the State Government had constituted a committee comprising Higher Education Minister V.S. Acharya, Law and Urban Development Minister S. Suresh Kumar, Environment and Fisheries Minister J. Krishna Palemar, MP D.V. Sadananda Gowda, Chairman of the Western Ghats Task Force Anant Hegde Ashisar, and BJP leaders B. Nagaraj Shetty, C.T. Ravi and M.P. Appachu Ranjan to discuss the issue.

Asked if opinions on this matter had been sought from non-BJP MPs and MLAs, the Minister said that would be done shortly.

Other sites

The 10 forests are part of UNESCO's list of 39 natural sites for nomination as heritage sites in the Western Ghats spanning four States. These include 19 sites in Kerala, six in Tamil Nadu and four in Maharashtra.