Yettinaholey project: 'Work on forest land not started'.

The Karnataka Forest Department has said that the work has not yet started on the forest land in Yettinaholey water diversion project in Western Ghats of Karnataka.

Addressing presspersons in Mangaluru recently, Vinay Luthra, Principal Chief Conservator of Forests of Karnataka, said that the project involves work on around two-three hectares of reserved forest land and eight-nine hectares of deemed forest land in the Western Ghat region in Karnataka.

No work has begun on the forest land in the project area, Luthra said.

It may be mentioned here that environmentalists in coastal Karnataka are opposing the Yettinaholey water diversion project. They fear that the project in the eco-sensitive Western Ghat section of Karnataka would have an impact on Nethravathi River, which is the lifeline of the district.

(Yettinaholey project envisages diverting the west-flowing Yettinaholey stream in the western ghat section to the eastern parts of the state. Yettinaholey is one of the tributaries of Nethravathi River. Nethravathi joins the sea in Mangaluru.)


HBL