Sunil Kumar accused of infusing fear among people for political gain

Udupi, August 4: Karkala MLA H Gopal Bhandary has accused former MLA V Sunil Kumar of infusing fear in the minds of innocent people by giving false information that the Kudremukh National Park (KNP) would be declared as a tiger reserve.

Addressing a press conference here on Friday, Bhandary said that former MLA was playing with the sentiments of innocent tribal people, by launching agitation against the non-existing Tiger Conservation project.

Mr Bhandary said that after their utter failure previous dramas like Datta Peeta, Mr Kumar and his associates had been provoking the people against Tiger Project, for political gains. In fact, neither the Tiger Conservation project exists in Kudremukh Wild Life Division nor the state government issued a notification for the one, he added.

Bhandary said that when he had asked Minister for Forests C.P. Yogeshwar in the Legislative Assembly on July 30 whether the State Government was planning to declare KNP as a tiger reserve, the latter made it clear that the State had five tiger reserves and there was no question of any new one coming up in the State. The State Government had not issued any notification on tiger reserve in KNP. Even the Deputy Commissioner of Udupi district had urged people not to panic or get frightened on this issue.

Minister had agreed that after a meeting of forest officials with the then Chief Minister DV Sadananda Gowda, state government had sought the Tiger Conservation project for Kudremukh. Though the central government gave its consent to state's proposal, Chief Minister on Nov 30, 2011, ordered the officials not to include the Kudremukh region in the Tiger project. In the assembly Yogishwar had also made it clear that the state government had not declared Kudremukh Wild Life Region as Tiger Reserve Area.

In spite of their own party's CM and Minister's statement Mr Kumar had been misguiding the public by saying that the Central Government had been implementing the project directly.

Mr Bhandary pitied former MLA's ignorance on the federal structure of the nation, where the forest comes under the state list.

Speaking on the occasion Udupi-Chikmagalur MP K Jayaprakash Hegde sought legal action against those who spread the rumours on Tiger Project and said that they had already submitted a memorandum to the Deputy Commissioner for the same.

Protest

Meanwhile, a newly formed organisation headed by Andaru Deviprasad Shetty staged a protest in Karkala against the Tiger Project under the leadership of Sunil Kumar, who alleged that the Project would affect the life of the people in 11 villages.

Addressing the protesters Mr Kumar also said that the State Government had made it clear to the Centre that it would not allow KNP to be declared as a tiger reserve. But the Union Government wanted to have a tiger reserve in KNP. Nearly 1,500 tribal families in KNP and 4,000 families living on its borders would be affected by the project. Many tribal people had been affected after the Kudremukh National Park came into existence in 1987.

Though the State Government opposed inclusion of 10 sites in the Western Ghats for heritage tag from UNESCO, the Centre had an opposite view. Now it was arm-twisting the State Government over the tiger reserve issue. The Centre should rescind its proposal on the tiger reserve. “We will fight against the project till it is given up,” Mr. Kumar said.