Releasing a corporate sustainability report in Bengaluru recently, Karnataka’s Minister for Forests, Ecology and Environment Eshwar B. Khandre made a profound observation: ‘’If there is greenery, there is life; if there are forests, there is a future’’

Such lofty statements tend to put a gloss over the negative fallout of policy decisions that are antithetical to conservation. Ironically, the very department Mr. Khandre heads has taken decisions that jeopardises environment and ecology.

Be it the Sharavathi Pumped Storage project in Shivamogga or the micro-hydel projects in Cauvery Wildlife Sanctuary in Chamarajanagar, doing a U-turn on Goa-Tamnar power project, or failure to clear forest encroachments, the State’s policy is inconsistent with its avowed intention of forest protection. Activists perceive a pattern in the decision-making that prioritizes infrastructure over environment, which endangers ecological integrity.

Infra projects galore

The Sharavathi Pumped Storage Project threatens to inundate large tracts of evergreen forest in one of the few remaining biodiversity-rich landscapes in the Western Ghats.

The Karnataka Power Corporation Ltd (KPCL) is promoting the 2,000 MW pumped-storage hydroelectric facility. The project site is in an ecologically fragile and sensitive area. The scheme requires 42.51 hectares (105.05 acres) of forest land and 60.53 hectares (149.57 acres) of non-forest land from the Sharavathi Valley Lion-Tailed Macaque Wildlife Sanctuary.

This is besides the 11.64 hectares (28.76 acres) of forest land and 28.074 hectares (69