KOZHIKODE: As there is serious environmental concern regarding the lifting of night travel ban on the Bandipur stretch of the Kozhikode-Kollegal NH 766 and modernising the Kutta-Gonikuppa Road connecting Wayanad with Karnataka, the focus is now on an earlier road proposal which has been gathering dust for a few years.
The Sulthan Bathery-Valluvadi-Chikkabaragi Road, which was one of the recommendations of NATPAC in 2014, is claimed to include a forest stretch of only 19km, reducing the distance to Mysuru by 20km. Further, people who have gone on this stretch vouch that only 9 km of forest will be affected.
The proposed road starts from Moolamkavu near Sulthan Bathery and proceeds through the Valluvadi-Chikkabaragi-Begur-Mysuru route. Environmentalists, Nilgiri-Wayanad NH & Rail Action Committee and Wayanad Chamber of Commerce are for this route. From Chikkabaragi, one can proceed to Mysuru through Gundlupet too.
“Though the NATPAC report, which was prepared five years ago, says that the proposed road passes through a 19-km forest stretch of Bandipur Tiger Reserve, it is actually just 9km (4 km in Kerala and five in Karnataka). NATPAC considered one-side forest also and they depended on the survey done by the Railways decades ago without using modern equipment like Google Maps,” said Abdul Rasak C, executive committee member of Action Committee. According to him, there is an unpaved road on the route which is being used by the Forest Department.
“There are fewer forest tracts on this route. Instead, it is mostly barren land. It doesn’t fall in the core area of Bandipur Reserve. The route was originally used by kings of yore for military movement and later for cattle transport,” he said.
Rasak said that if the narrow road is developed into a 45-m-wide road, around 33 hectares of land needs to be acquired with zero eviction. If an elevated highway is constructed over the 9-km forest, it would be feasible,” he said.
Greens also approve
Wayanad Prakruthi Samrakshana Samithi president N Badusha also said this route seemed to be feasible though an exhaustive survey ought to be done before arriving at a conclusion.“The proposed Valluvadi-Chikkabaragi route should be seriously considered. It seems less damaging to environment rather than lifting the night traffic ban on Bandipur stretch or going by Kutta-Gonikuppa Road,” said Badusha. Futher, greens and farmers in Kodagu are resisting widening of the Kutta-Gonikuppa Road tooth and nail.
“All the existing roads from Wayanad to Karnataka pass through either Bandipur Reserve or the Nagarhole Tiger Reserve. While the existing NH-766 cuts through the Bandipur Reserve for 19km and the Kutta-Gonikuppa alternative Road passes through the tiger reserve for 12km, the Valluvadi-Chikkabaragi road has only a few kilometres of forest stretch. If the state apprises the SC of this, there are chances of obtaining the nod for the road,” said Wayanad Chamber of Commerce president Johny Patani.
