HPCL pipeline threatening Western Ghats

By M.Raghuram

BELTHANGADY, JAN. 31. The thick rain forests of Western Ghats are being systematically mowed down by government enterprises in the name of much publicised development yet only a handful of environmental workers at the foothills of the Ghats cry about it.

Thanks to the Hindustan Petroleum Corporation and the Union Government undertaking Petronet, the Western Ghats are facing the worst threat to their bio-diversity and forest resources. The pipeline corridor running through the Ghats for over 45 km would have left the thick Ghats ravaged when the work is through.

Huge machineries such as excavators, bulldozers, stone crackers are pillaging one of the best bio-diversity reserves of the world destroying trees, bamboo groves, medicinal plants and fragmenting perennial water sources. The pipeline is now halfway through the forests, and 10 more km it would have entered Chikmagalur district at Mudigere Taluk Panchayat jurisdiction.

At this juncture the only voice that is remaining in the anti- pipeline gauntlet is that of the Neriya Gram Panchayat which has sent a notice to Petronet asking it to immediately stop work as it had not secured construction licence from the gram panchayat.

Quoting Sections 64 and 66 of the Karnataka Panchayat Raj Act, 1993 the gram panchayat has questioned the construction work that is going on in its jurisdiction. It has also said that it would take necessary action against the company if it continues with the ``illegal construction.'' Another voice that has objected the pillage of the Western Ghats is that of Visveshathirtha Swamiji of Paryaya Pejavar Math at Udupi, who has sought the intervention of the Prime Minister, Mr. Atal Behari Vajpayee, against the destruction of Western Ghats in a recent request.

Speaking to The Hindu, Mr. Narayana Achari, President of the Neriya Gram Panchayat said that Petronet had not applied for licence to lay the Mangalore-Bangalore Petroleum Pipeline passing through its jurisdiction. Now that the company had started work, the Panchayat was left with no other measure to either ask the company to apply for licence or stop work with the help of law. As things stood now, the pipeline was an illegal construction.

He pointed out that 18 other panchayats in Belthangady, Mangalore and Buntwal taluks also had resolved to decline licence to the company during the last one year. They argued that the pipeline was being laid in the green belt area and the work itself amounted to industrial activity which could not be allowed.

Mr. Somanatha Nayak, convenor of the Nagarika Seva Trust, which is spearheading the anti-HPCL pipeline movement, said initially the panchayats were afraid to go against the project as it was a Union Government project, but after knowing their rights and the unfathomable environmental damage the project would cause to the region the panchayats had resolved against giving licence. But Petronet with little regard to the panchayats and the Panchayat Raj Act has gone ahead with the work of laying the pipeline. Mr. Nayak earlier sought legal opinion which clearly states that the pipeline was a violation of the Panchayat Raj Act.

The Dakshina Kannada Parisaraskta Okkuta, which has been opposing the project from day one, now points out that the project will cause irreparable damage to the ecology in the long run. It would destroy nearly 75,000 trees, over a thousand loads of bamboo, rare medicinal plants, displace wildlife and alter the course of perennial water sources.

Due to fragmentation of the course of the water resources by the pipeline and the road that has been laid by Petronet, the rivers may change course or even dry up because of silt that would set in as a result of loose soil that would slide into them during monsoon.

The question that arises now is, can the project be stopped when HPCL has spent over Rs.50 crore? Mr. Shampa Daithota, President of the Dakshina Kannada Parisaraskta Okkuta, says ``yes.'' It is less than the total estimated loss due to damage to environment. If the project is shelved at this point the dense forest that is yet to be cut down could be saved, he argues. Even at this point the government can take a decision to transport the oil products of MRPL by rail. The economics of the project would also save the government some Rs.800 crores as the pipeline project costs Rs.1000 crores while the re-linking of Mangalore -Bangalore Broadgauge converted line would cost less than 200 crores.

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