Kodagu Floods - A Wake Up call from Mother Nature...

1. With back to back flooding in the last three years( 2018 ,2019& 2020)no apparent lessons seem to have been learnt from recurring disasters in Kodagu. The birthplace of river Cauvery is atop Tala-Kaveri is a pilgrimage center & the Indigenous Kodavas , a nature worshiping community consider themselves as the offspring of the river. Every momentous occasion of the kodavas is marked by some association with goddess Cauvery.

​2. In the month of July 2020 the chief priest of the Talacauvery temple, his wife, & three others were buried alive in landslides caused not just the rains but also the not so thoughtful developmental activities at Tala-Kaveri & Bhagamandala ( Foot hills)The genesis of the problem goes back to six years when the civic authorities started using bulldozers & earth movers to level land for construction activities like resorts, creating water bodies, broadening roads etc. Such like activities were taken up in most places in Coorg. It was a tragedy that hyper power cables were drawn across Kodagu by cutting over 50,000 trees to supply power to Kerala. All environmental protection recommendations like professor Gadgil & Dr Kasturirangan reports went to deaf ears of politicians with selfish motives thus making the civil administration slack.

3. Reasons for land slides across Malnad districts was landslides due to environmental degradation which triggered extensive damages not only in Kodagu but in chikkamangaluru, Dakshina & Uttara Kannada, Dharwad etc. Add to all the woes are the indisciplined tourists mostly software types turning the area into picnic spots with their food packages & liquor bottles thrown around as waste.

4. There is an urgent need to declare Kodagu as an environmental Sensitive Zone. Can the authorities “WAKE UP” Please.