Bengaluru: After dilly dallying over restoring the Wildlife Conservation Reserve status for Kappattagudda, the state government has finally declared Kappattagudda again as a Conservation Reserve.
While revenue villages and pattal lands are excluded from the conservation area, 89.923 hectares at Chikkawadatti village in Mundaragi taluk has been declared as a conservation area for medicinal plants.
The government notification, which was issued on Tuesday termed the area as ecologically and economically important and also noted that it was rich, valuable, unique and irreplaceable if it was destroyed.
The conservation reserve sprawls over three taluks of Gadag district, covering 17,872.248 hectares. While Gadag district has 401.811 hectares of the Reserve, Mundaragi taluk has 15,453.673 hectares and Shirahatti has 2016.764 hectares.
After realising that the earlier government had permitted gold mining in the area by a private company, the state government had withdrawn the Conservation Reserve status to Kappattagudda. However, owing to public pressure and the advice of heads of local mutts, the government was forced to reconsider its decision.
The issue was also discussed in the meeting of the Wildlife Advisory Board on February 20 this year, which resolved to leave the decision to the Chief Minister.
After Mr Siddaramaiah signed the government order, a notification was issued in this regard.
Thes also a big victory for environmentalists and green activists who had been stoutly opposing the withdrawal of the conservation reserve status saying it would provide mining companies easy access to the pristine forests and lead to destruction of its ecosystem.
