Unesco mission to Western Ghats runs into obstacles

Locals gheraoed two Unesco officials who were on an inspection tour of Western Ghats as part of the initiative to declare the region a world natural heritage site at Madikeri on Tuesday.

Forest officials and members of the Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and Environment (Atree) were accompanying the Unseco delegates.

Upset over the hostile reception, the team cut short its trip and returned to Bangalore.

The team had arrived in Madikeri from Mangalore after visiting Kudremukh, Pushpagiri and Brahmagiri wildlife sanctuaries. But locals accosted the team in Madikeri, shouted slogans against efforts to declare the region a heritage site and asked the delegation to go back.

Kodagu zilla panchayat president Vijaya, coffee planters’ association president Manu Uthappa and local leader Rajaram, supporters of assembly speaker KG Bopaiah, tribal leaders and taluk panchayat leaders were among the agitators. The demonstrators laid a siege to the delegation.

A spokesman for the agitationists said that they wanted the locals and public representatives to be consulted before the Unesco went ahead with declaring the region as a natural heritage site. He said self-proclaimed environmentalists were mobilising funds from outside the country and derailing local development works.

Forest officials said that the locals had reservations against their region being declared a heritage site as they believed that such a thing would mean no development work could be taken up in the area as various wildlife reserve restrictions would come into force.

They blamed local political groups and vested interests for the ‘ill-informed’ agitation.

The Unesco team had arrived in Karnataka on a request from the state forest department.  Another Unesco team on a similar mission had received a hostile reception at Sirsi earlier.

The Unesco officials reportedly said that there was no purpose in continuing with their mission and declaring the area a natural heritage site in the face of such local resistance.