Bengaluru: A meeting convened by the government to elicit the opinion of experts on the proposed ‘Pathala Gange’ project to draw water from deep inside the earth, witnessed strong opposition from environmentalists.
However, rural development and panchayat raj minister H.K.Patil was non-committal on the issue and did not spell out if the government would drop the project in view of the growing opposition or go ahead with it.
He announced that the matter would be referred to the state cabinet which would take a final call on the project.This statement of the minister clearly indicates that the government may override the opposition of environmentalists like it did in the case of the controversial steel bridge project which was eventually shelved following a huge public outcry.
During the meeting, almost all environmentalists opposed the project tooth and nail saying it would cause great damage to the environment in future. Drawing water from a depth of over 5,000 metres below the earth would do irreparable damage to the environment.
Former chairman of the Western Ghats Task Force Anand Hedge Ashisara presented his case with facts and figures to prove his point on how the project was not suited for Karnataka.
Barring one or two, almost all experts wanted the government to drop the project to safeguard the interests of the environment. But defending the project, Mr Patil claimed that experts had given a report that no damage would be caused to the environment as claimed by the greens. Besides the chosen company in its presentation had allayed fears of any major imbalance in nature because of drilling for water to such depths. However, the project would be presented before the state cabinet for clearance, he added.
