No lessons learnt from floods as realty business thrives in Kodagu

BENGALURU: If you are driving on the highway leading to Madikeri or Virajpet in Kodagu, it’s hard to miss numerous “plots for sale” advertisement boards dotting the placid road.
Most of these boards have come up in recent times, suggesting the real estate business has been thriving in the coffee district and indicating the government has not learnt any lessons despite floods and landslides last year.
Coffee planters, particularly small and marginal growers, are finding it more lucrative to sell their land for housing and tourism projects, which are taking over the region.This has given way to mass and indiscriminate land conversion of hundreds of acres into housing layouts and nature resorts, besides illegal sand mining across Cauvery and its tributaries, thus creating an imbalance in the rich ecosystem of Kodagu.
The local people say nothing has really changed in the last seven months and they fear a repeat of 2018 this year too. “Residential layouts and nature resorts continue to sprout across Kodagu, especially in the vicinity of Madikeri, Sunticoppa, Gonicoppa, Virajpet and Bitangala with or without the permission of district authorities. Construction activity is leading to uncontrolled sand mining and indiscriminate drilling of borewells,” said Vedith Madappa, a green activist. All this despite the district authorities’s tall claims that they have rejected more than 600 land conversion applications in the last few months.
Still on paper
Soon after disaster struck in the district, the government announced that it will adopt appropriate land-use planning and watershed management practices to minimise further damage caused to the ecosystems. It was based on a study conducted by geological experts whose analysis of the situation revealed that nature’s fury unleashed in the district is the result of manmade blunders committed due to the ever-increasing greed for tourism and economic growth.
Not agreeing that real estate alone was the main cause of floods and landslides, Codava National Council (CNC) president NU Nachappa attributes last year’s disaster to unscientific construction of check dams and reservoirs in Kodagu. “Delayed discharge of water from Harangi dam and accumulated silt had led to the disaster. But the government made no effort to conduct a study and rectify it for political reasons. We will soon launch an agitation to draw the state government’s attention ahead of monsoon. Or else there could be another disaster on the cards,” said Nachappa.