Mangaluru: The Anti-Yettinahole project movement received national level support with Swami Anand Swaroop of Ganga Seva Samithi assuring that he would send a petition to the Union Minister of Ecology and Forests seeking a halt to the project.
He said that he might take it up with Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his meeting on October 7.
“The Minister (Anil Madhav Dave) was part of environmental protection activities including Narmada movement and is very concerned about nature. I will personally speak to him and also send a petition in a day or two," the Swamiji said during a meeting organised to discuss the Yettinahole project at Mangaluru on Thursday. “This project is an unnatural development which will turn disastrous for Western Ghats and people of Dakshina Kannada. There has been no environment clearance, no public hearing and environment impact assessment. I will mention all these in the petition and ask the minister to stop the project,” he said.
The Swamiji also said that he would also tell the minister that even people of Chikkballapur and Kolar too were opposed to this project. Also this project is an unnatural development. This would affect nature and the world," he said. He was hopeful that the Minister would take steps to stop the project.
Meanwhile, NITK former professor Prof S G Mayya who is fighting against Yettinahole project warned that damage to Western Ghats could adversely affect the water in Cauvery.
“The major catchment area of Cauvery is in Kerala and Karnataka. Any harm to Western Ghats would decrease the water flow in Cauvery in the future,” he said.
