Forests provide wide range of ecosystem services and thereby help communities to derive many direct and indirect benefits. Forest watershed services of absorbing rain water and releasing it slowly, allowing it to seep into the soil preventing run-off with sediments helps communities downstream to maximise the benefits from crop cultivation.
CHAMARAJANAGAR: Members of the Chamarajanagar Taluk Panchayat have alleged that officials of the Watershed Development Department have misappropriated a large amount of funds under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) by executing work that was of poor quality.
The Soliga tribe in the Biligiri Rangaswamy Temple Hills of Chamarajanagar district of Karnataka has maintained a continuous and intimate interaction with the forest, deriving most of its basic requirements from the forests.
An assistant sub-inspector attached to Chamarajanagar Rural Police Station, B Basavegowda (52) has been trampled to death by a wild tusker near Yettegowdanadoddi forest range, on Karnataka-Tamil Nadu Border on Monday.
DH News Service,Mysore:
To check the growing wild elephant-human conflicts, In-charge Deputy Conservator of Forests Yatish Kumar mooted a plan on the lines of South Africa to prevent wild elephants straying into human habitat in Mysore and Chamarajanagar districts.
In South Africa, railway tracks have been used as fence and is a great success, he noted.
Tribal communities are a rich source of traditional knowledge. Initiatives that respect their knowledge while taking them through the process of development could be enriching to all the partners involved. Here is a case of a partnership which has been mutually enriching.
KOLLEGAL (Chamarajanagar district): After a 16-year lull, the forest areas of Kollegal region on Karnataka's border with Tamil Nadu will begin to resonate with the sound of explosives and the drone of excavators and trucks as quarrying for the valuable black granite is all set to resume.
The Government of Karnataka's Department of Mines and Geology has issued No Objection Certificates to 29 applicants seeking to carry out quarrying activities in revenue land adjoining the forest areas, where large deposits exist.
The Biligiri Rangaswamy (BR) Hills are in the Yelanur Taluka of Chamrajanagar District of Karnataka. In the midst of these hills lies the 540 square kilometre Biligiri Rangaswamy Temple Wildlife Sanctuary (BRT WLS). This area is also the traditional home of the indigenous Soliga people who have lived here for generations. Once declared a sanctuary, the resources of the area legally belong to the State. In the past, however the Forest Department has allowed the Soligas to collect NTFP. This scenario changed in 2006.
In 2002-2004, Karnataka's S.M. Krishna government blamed farmers' suicides on alcoholism and gambling. This time around, the authorities cannot ignore the bitter harvest and its aftermath. In Bidar district alone, 48 farmers have killed themselves since July 2006. All of them were sugarcane cultivators. .News of suicides is trickling in from Gulbarga, Gadag, Mandya and Chamarajanagar.
