Govt failed to get FAC okay for Yettinahole project: Petitioner

Agencies

August 22, 2017

New Delhi, Aug 22: A petitioner opposing the Yettinahole drinking water project near Sakleshpur informed the National Green Tribunal on Monday that the Karnataka government failed to obtain mandatory Forest Advisory Committee (FAC) approval since it was an irrigation project and required large scale diversion of forest land.

Advocate Ritwick Dutta representing petitioner K N Somashekhar said before the NGT bench headed by Justice Javed Rahim that though the state government claimed that it is a drinking water project, in reality it is a minor irrigation project where water will be drawn from the Western Ghats and diverted to fill the lakes in Kolar and Chikkaballapur districts.

Besides, the project required the approval of the FAC and not the Regional Forest Experts committee as claimed by the state government, he said.

Alleging that the entire project report prepared by the state government was flawed, the advocate said the Sakleshpur region of the Western Ghats did not have sufficient water as projected by the state government.

The advocate also said that according to the Kasturirangan report, no major irrigation project should come up in the ecologically sensitive Western Ghats. If the current project comes up in region, it would be a big threat to the ecology of the Western Ghats, he said.

The bench allowed the Karnataka government to make its arguments on September 12 and 13.

Comments

Should abandon that project

Another thuglak project.. it wont be practical. if made practical also, people wont get its benefit

People dont want yettinahole.. in public both bjp and cong opposed the project.. still why sticking on that project.

Why still yetinahole...!

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Elusive bamboo shrimp resurfaces in Mangaluru estuary after 70 years

News Network

December 7,2025

Mangaluru, Dec 7: A rare bamboo shrimp has been rediscovered on mainland India more than 70 years after it was last reported, confirming for the first time the presence of Atyopsis spinipes in the country. The find was made by researchers from the Centre for Climate Change Studies at Sathyabama Institute of Science and Technology, Chennai, during surveys in Karnataka and Odisha.

The team — shrimp expert Dr S Prakash, PhD scholar K Kunjulakshmi, and Mangaluru-based researcher Maclean Antony Santos — combined field surveys, ecological assessments and DNA analysis to identify the elusive species. Their findings, published in Zootaxa, resolve decades of taxonomic confusion stemming from a 1951 report that misidentified the species as Atyopsis moluccensis without strong evidence.

The shrimp has now been confirmed at two locations: the Mulki–Pavanje estuary near Mangaluru and the Kuakhai River in Bhubaneswar. Historical specimens from the Andaman Islands, previously labelled as A. moluccensis, were also found to be misidentified and actually belong to A. spinipes.

The rediscovery began after an aquarium hobbyist in Odisha spotted a shrimp in 2022, prompting systematic surveys across Udupi, Karwar and Mangaluru. Four female specimens were collected in Mulki and one in Odisha, all genetically matching.

Researchers warn the species may exist in very small, vulnerable populations as freshwater habitats face increasing pressure from pollution, sand mining and infrastructure development. All verified specimens have been deposited with the Zoological Survey of India for future reference.

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