Update - Cauvery WS -

Friends.

I was very disturbed by this "giving away" of Cauvery Wildlife Sanctuary as written by me earlier in this forum.

In April 2009, I served a legal notice to the Karnataka Forest department, Karnataka Government and to Centre (MoEF), under section 55 of the Wildlife Protection Act, through an Advocate practising in the Hon'ble Supreme Court of India.

The Chief Wildlife Warden of Karnataka has replied to me now (others haven't replied yet).

I have enclosed a scanned copy of the reply (2 pags). Please read both the pages. It is very shocking to see the views of a Chief Wildife Warden especially for activities that has been permitted in a critical elephant habitat (Cauvery Wildlife Sanctuary):

- in Para 3, he has said no fire is being kindled. But the bush betta resort (they call it an angling camp) lights bon-fire every night

- in para 3, he has said no construction of commercial lodge has been allowed inside the sanctuary. He is bluffing blatantly.

(Please see these web links. What is this then? A charity camp??!!)

http://www.fishmahseer.com/fishing.php

http://www.fishmahseer.com/camp.php

The Chief Wildlife Warden believes that this Fishing camp with accommodation etc is NOT a commercial tourism lodge !!!
Please see the above websites for pictures of the actual accommodation. Can we allow such "camps" in Nagarhole and Bandipur??


In Para 7 he says no permission has been given to expolit or disturb wildlife. What is angling then? Is it not disturbing and is it not exploitation? What conservation purpose does it serve? Please see the above website that clearly shows that the aquatic fish are being angled, baited, trapped and injured. We do not know if they are alive when they are released back in the river. They may die much later after the release due to the nature of injuries.

Para 8 is the Killer. The chief wildlife warden says that "Manual angling of fish, catching and releasing DOES NOT amount to Fishing" !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! He further goes on to say that it creates "Intimacy and Awareness"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So, can people go inside the park and catch animals and release them to build intimacy and awareness?? How about catching deer, birds, etc for intimacy? How can any such thing be allowed inside a protected area?

If you read the two pages, you will notice that the Chief Wildlife Warden is in full support of a tourism lodge that has been built (doesn't matter if it is temporary or permanent) inside a Protected area (against the Wildlife Protection Act). He has also taken lots of pain to defend "exploitation of wildlife inside the park which serves no purpose or no good for wildlife conservation"

It is only a question of time before we have such camps coming inside other National Parks and Sanctuaries in Karnataka.

I have now approached the CEC in New Delhi and filed a complaint.

Hello Ramesh,

It is unfortunate that prime forest lands are given to tourism industry to build resorts for the enjoyment of tourists. People dont even allow our wildlife to live in peace. Not only people stay there, make noise but on top of it they are now catching fish. Definitely the fish will bleed even if they are released in the water. I dont think anyone has done any study on the impact of such invasive pleasure sport.

We as human beings can go to any extent for our benefit and pleasure and not see the impact of that on nature and wildlife.

It is really unfortunate that a Forest Officer should say the things you have mentioned above. It points out that he is just trying to evade the fact that the resort is causing damage to the wildlife. It is evident that even a layman can see the fact that such a resort will only cause harm to the fish as well as other wild animals. If the protectors defend the criminals, then our forests and wilderness dont have much hope.I hope that in future this project doesnt become a precedent for other resorts to come up in prime forest lands.

I hope the complain you have filed, will help to bring this matter in the open and proper action is taken against the resort.
Please do keep us posted on this.

This is highly unfortunate.

Wildlife tourism ought to be non-consumptive ie. the tourism should not have any long term impact on the wilderness areas and wildlife and nothing should be removed from the area.

Unfortunately, allowing resorts in the middle of the pristine forests is becoming a regular practice. I don't consider fishing to be a non-consumptive activity. Fishing is considered to be a sport as these huge fishes often are tough to control. They pull away with all their might. It is natural that the fish is fighting for its life. So definitely this can't be non-invasive activity. As far as my knowledge goes fishing is not allowed in any other reserves. I know of people getting prosecuted for fishing in Corbett.

I certainly don't agree that catching fish, and releasing it doesn't amount to fishing. This appears to be a new interpretation of the word fishing. Fishing as I understand and as per the definitions in dictionaries like Oxford dictionary is the act of catching fish with a net or hook and line. So the interpretation of forest department is completely wrong.

I hope this doesn't act as a precedent for setting up resorts in our other wilderness areas. Look forward to the CEC verdict.

Cheers,
Sabyasachi

My Complaint with CEC has been registered and we got the case number.
It is 1233 of 2009.

It will be great if people can join hands with me on this matter and write to CEC about this matter.

Thanks.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Tiger Ramesh

My Complaint with CEC has been registered and we got the case number.
It is 1233 of 2009.

It will be great if people can join hands with me on this matter and write to CEC about this matter.

Thanks.

---

Hi. Finally we have a date fixed by CEC for the first hearing. It is on 26th Nov 2009 in New Delhi. Item no 6 from among the day's transactions.

Thanks. I hope the matter is taken up that day. Please keep us posted.

Cheers,
Sabyasachi

Let us all hope that the decision comes in favour of wildlife.

The much of gallery forests of Cauvery is gone and it is imperative to save the leftover patches atleast.

Please keep us updated, Ramesh.

Thanks.

Hi.
There was a hearing today on my complaint by the CEC in Delhi. I attended the same along with my lawyer from the Supreme Court. All the 6 members of the CEC were present. Karnataka forest department was represented by a CCF. When the hearing started, the CEC made it clear to the Forest department that they have violated the Forest Conservation Act, Wildlife Protection Act and various orders of the Hon'ble Supreme Court based on the documents and proof we had provided. They wanted to know what the karnataka forest department had to say?

To which the CCF said that they haven't seen a copy of the complaint !!!!!!!!!
We had couriered a copy of the complaint to Addtnl PCCF Wildlife.
Immediately we handed over another copy of the complaint and took an acknowledgement from the CCF.

CEC once again repeated that there is serious violation by KFD and asked them to file a reply soon and fixed the date for next hearing on 15th December 2009.

There was no representation/reply from the Director - Project Elephant who was the other party. It was sad to note that the director project elephant is just not interested in this matter.

More updates to come. Watch this space.

Thanks for the update Ramesh. Hope to hear from you soon

I am surprised to hear that there was no response from Project Elephant on the issue.

Thanks for the update.

Cheers,
Sabyasachi

Forest Dept faces CEC wrath:

http://www.deccanherald.com/content/...cec-wrath.html

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by AB Apana

Forest Dept faces CEC wrath:

http://www.deccanherald.com/content/...cec-wrath.html

---

Hi. Thanks. The battle has been ON for sometime now. Respondents are arguing that Mahseer is "just a fish" :)

We have a next hearing today at 3.00 PM. Will keep this section updated post the hearing.

In the previous hearing, the present Chief Wildlife Warden submitted that in Jun 2009, a Hare was found killed at this resort and therefore cases have been filed against some of their employees in a court.

Thanks Apana for sharing the news item. Its seems things are coming out in the open. Thanks for the update Ramesh, do keep us posted.