Sunday Story: Sharavathy villages Pristine valley, deceptive serenity

People of 31 villages in the Sharavathy valley lost part of their land to Hire Bhaskara and Linganamakki dams in 1939 and 1964, respectively. The situation turned from bad to worse for them in 1972 when the forest department declared the region a wildlife sanctuary and an 'ecologically sensitive hotspot', taking away their land rights and forcing them to live in darkness by denying them power and other amenities.

The peace and quiet calls out to visitors to the rolling green mountain ranges drenched in wintry fog and interspersed with small milky streams. Smoking chimneys of  thatched huts sitting on the  mountains, overlooking paddy fields and areca plantations, complete the picture.  But the serenity of the Sharavathy valley in the Malnad is deceiving.

Enchanted by the beauty of the hills around, tourists arriving at  the Jog Falls in hordes hardly ever detect the misery of the people  living  in the remote villages here.

Sunkadamane-Harkani village, just a stone’s throw away from the Falls that are crucial to power generated by the Linganamakki reservoir, is almost cut off from the mainland with neither power supply nor any amenities. While the dam supplies power  to the rest of the state, the villagers here  continue to live in darkness even five decades after it was built.

The story is similar in  31 villages spread across over 431 sqkm of the Western Ghats in the Sharavathy jungles. Many lost their land when Hire Bhaskara dam was built in 1939, but more suffered when the Linganamakki reservoir was built between 1958 and 1964, submerging their land under Sharavathy backwaters.

Worse was to come, however.  In 1972, the forest department declared the valleys and mountains of the region a wildlife sanctuary and an ‘ecologically sensitive hotspot’, taking away the land rights of the people, who still had them  and forcing them to live in darkness, by denying them power and other amenities.

In 2004, the department came up with a buy-back scheme and began to purchase land from those living in the sanctuary. But it backed down when the move was met by  agitations led by various organisations. It however, clamped down on their movements in the forests, insisting the villagers could not carry match boxes, collect dry  wood, carry guns for protection against wild animals or fence their houses and farmlands. 

CCTV cameras were installed at strategic points to keep an eye on them and they were  deprived of government facilities and benefits under schemes such as National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS).

Although, CCTV cameras were removed  in response to a massive rally by people of the Sharavathy valley  in Shivamogga on January 9 led by Sharavathi Kanive Jana Horata Vedike, the villagers here still have no light in their homes after dark or even access to schools.  

A student of class 9, Harini of Sunkadamane village, says she walks 6 km  to her school at Kargal. “We  live in fear of animal attack  as forest officials have made paths at various points  allowing bisons, bears, wolves and foxes to enter our villages.

They have stopped us from cultivating our land and grazing cattle on  gomala land. They also foist cases on us if we carry guns for protection against wild animals, ” said a farmer, Mahabalagiri of Nandodi-Yerakod village. A gram panchayat member of Aralagodu village, Prabhavati Chandrakant, who owns 10 acres of farmland in the area, says she has no right to cultivate it.

“The foresters are behaving like dictators. I find it difficult to even graze  cattle in the nearby gomala land due to the restrictions imposed,” she said.  The restrictions are uncalled for, said B.R.Jayanth of the Sharavathi Kanive Jana Horata Vedike , questioning the legality of the government declaring 431 sqkm of  the region as the Sharavathy Valley Wildlife Sanctuary under section 18 of the Wildlife (Protection) Act  , 1972. 

He argues that under an amendment introduced in 1991, an area can be declared a sanctuary only under Section 26 (A) of the Act. “But going by a letter to the Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (PCCF) the declaration of the sanctuary under Section 18 of the Act was approved by the then deputy commissioner. The state government has not even issued a gazette notification on the sanctuary,” he noted, also claiming that the due process was not followed even in this declaration.

“Under sections 19 to 25 of the Act, the deputy commissioner has to submit details of ownership of government and private lands, excluding the reserved forest area, by visiting each village and recording the views of the people. But this was not done before the final declaration of the area as Sharavathy wildlife sanctuary. People here are not against laws to protect forests,  but are upset at revenue land being made a part of the sanctuary,” he said, pointing out that even the Comptroller and Auditor General of India had noted that the draft resolution  made under Section 18 of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972  could not be treated as final declaration.

“When the PCCF, in a letter dated June 11, 2014, asked the Conservator of Forests, Shivamogga, to submit a declaration under Section 26(A) of the Wildlife (Protection) Act and suggested the sanctuary should cover 234 sqkm instead of  431.23 sqkm, the forest officials hurriedly declared gomala, soppina betta and khan-kharab land as forest land, misleading the deputy commissioner,” he charged.

The consequence has rained misery on the people of villages in the valley, who belong to Jain, Ediga and SC\ST communities, he regrets. The activist insists that the declaration of the Sharavathy Wildlife Santuary must  be discussed by the state cabinet and cancelled.

“CM Siddaramaiah, who visited Shivamogga recently, assured that the government would do justice to the people of Sharavathy valley,” he said. Deputy Commissioner M. Lokesh admitted that the declaration of the Sharavathy Valley Wildlife Sanctuary was not done according to procedure. “We plan to visit the valley to review the situation in the villages affected by forest laws,” he said.

Revenue and district in-charge Minister Kagodu Thimmappa, acknowledged that the  rules of the Wildlife (Protection) Act were not followed properly when declaring Sharavathy region a sanctuary. “I will visit the area soon and examine the possibility of dropping its declaration as a sanctuary,” he promised.