Protecting Western Ghats

With the Karnataka High Court staying the State Wildlife Board’s approval of the Hubballi-Ankola railway line project till further orders, the looming threat to the Western Ghats’ ecology seems to have abated for the time being. But a lasting relief would come only when this ill-advised proposal to divert the biodiversity-rich forest land of the Western Ghats to this controversial project is shelved for good. The Karnataka State Wildlife Board had recently approved the rail link between Hubballi, in Dharwad district, with Ankola, in Uttara Kannada, in a controversial manner, overruling the earlier rejection of this plan by several expert