Rahul Gandhi asks Karnataka, Kerala to resolve issue at the earliest

BENGALURU: Congress leader and Wayanad Lok Sabha member Rahul Gandhi on Sunday expressed his solidarity with groups of Keralities who have been sitting on an indefinite hunger strike protesting the ban on movement of vehicles in Badipur forest area in Karnataka from 9 pm to 6 am, and demanding an early resolution to the issue.

“I express my solidarity with the young people who have been protesting against indefinite hunger strike since September 25th in protest of the traffic ban on lakhs of people in Kerala and Karnataka,” Gandhi said in a tweet.

The Congress leader also urged Karnataka and Kerala governments to take “prompt” steps to resolve the problems related to environment and protect the interests of Wayanad people.

The Chamarajanagar district administration in Karnataka imposed the ban, long ago, on movement of vehicles in Bandipur tiger reserve area for nine hours in the night to protect wildlife. The ban was later ratified at the government level as well as the courts.

Kerala government, however, has been fighting for lifting of the ban as only two highways pass through Bandipur. While one connects Karnataka to Kerala directly via Wayanad, the other passes to Kerala via Gudalur in Tamil Nadu. Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan had sought the Centre's intervention.

Karnataka too had initially shown some interest to explore the proposal, but the then CM HD Kumaraswamy clarified last year that the state was neither in favour of lifting the ban nor would take up an elevated road inside the forest area, an idea strongly favoured by the Kerala CM in order to mitigate the hardship faced by the people of his state as Mysuru and Bengaluru are major trading centres for Keralities.