Karnataka witnesses major protest against Bedthi-Aghanashini river-linking

A mega protest by the Bedthi-Aghanashini Valley Conservation Committee against the proposed Bedthi-Aghanashini river-linking project garnered widespread support on Tuesday, November 3, with demonstrators blocking the national highway connecting Hubballi and Karwar. 

ETV Bharat reported that more than 10,000 protesters gathered at Sankalp Circle in Yellapur. The blockade disrupted traffic between 11 am and 1 pm, as the protesters walked from the APMC yard to Sankalp Circle.

The protesters demanded that the government and people's representatives decide within 15 days to scrap the project, which they say would jeopardise the natural flow of the two rivers. They warned that the agitation would be intensified by other means if no decision is taken in that period.

Local organisations, members of the public, and political leaders cutting across party lines backed the protest. MLAs Shivaram Hebbar and Dinakar Shetty, and MP Vishweshwar Hegde Kageri of the BJP, as well as Bheemanna Naik of the Congress, took part in the protests and expressed support.

The Bedti-Varada link seeks to pump about 524 million cubic metres of water from Sirsi in Uttara Kannada to the arid Raichur and Koppal districts. The National Water Development Agency's detailed project report envisages major tunnels totalling about 17 km, besides canals. Activists have called the plan to divert water from Yellapur and Sirsi through canals to Haveri farmers misplaced.

Opposition against the river linking has built up for months. Hundreds gathered at Freedom Park in Bengaluru on October 11 under the banner, "Save Western Ghats, Protect Uttara Kannada." The gathering had adopted 11 resolutions, including immediate scrapping of the Bedti-Aghanashini projects and suspension of the detailed project report process for the Bedti-Varada link. 

Earlier, Swarnavalli Mutt seer Gangadharendra Saraswathi Swami, the committee's honorary president, had urged the Union and state governments to drop both projects, citing the threat to Western Ghats biodiversity.