Kappatagudda's medicinal forest ambition, long way ahead

With Kappatagudda in Gadag district facing serious threat from illegal mining lobby and frequent incidents of ‘accidental’ fire, the need to protect the medicinal and aromatic plants is becoming crucial than ever. The state government had promised to transform Kappatagudda into a medicinal forest and keep constant vigil against the intruders. However, not much has been done to make the place a medicinal plant conservation area as proposed by the department of forest. The department had sent a proposal seeking declaration of the area as a medicinal plant conservation area when AN Yallappa Reddy was the conservator of forests (Canara and Research) and GV Sugur was Deputy Conservator of Forests (Research) 22 years ago. While the proposals for declaring some other areas in South Karnataka as protected areas like Siddara Betta in Savanadurga, BRT Hills, Charmadi, Kemmannugundi, Agumbe, Devimane, Kattalekan, Devarayanadurga, Kollur, Kuduremukha, Sandur, Subrahmanya and Talakaveri were cleared, the proposal for Kappatagudda did not come through.

The forest in Kappatagudda is spread across a vast region of 17,000 acres and has over 21,000 species of medicinal plants. Since the underlying geology has gold deposits, the medicinal value of the plants is high when compared to that of other general medicinal plants, according to experts.

Lack of interest by politicians from North Karnataka in preserving the ecosystem is one reason why the government did not pay much attention to the conservation of Kappatagudda while several other areas in south and coastal Karnataka got the protected area tag.

Former chairman of CAPART (Southern region) and president of NGO Vimochana B L Patil has urged the state government to set up the proposed University of Forestry Sciences at Kappatagudda. He said this would help preserve and conserve the ecosystem that has been facing threat due to the alleged illegal mining and looting of the natural resources by influential persons including certain politicians. “The setting up of the proposed university is being delayed due to problems in identifying proper location. The government should finalise Kappatagudda and set up the university there” Patil said. He also added that the government should make an announcement to this effect in the forthcoming state budget.However, the senior officials in the forest department do not believe that setting up of the University would help preserve the ecosystem in Kappatagudda. “It will help create positions of vice-chancellor, registrars and professors. New buildings will come up in the area which will further be detrimental to the ecosystem. Instead the government should declare the entire Kappatagudda as medicinal plant conservation areas and provide it protection” said an officer.