People living near the MM Hills Wildlife Sanctuary and in Hanur in Chamarajanagar district have vehemently opposed the proposal to upgrade the sanctuary to a tiger reserve and expressed their concerns about it on Friday.
A public hearing was convened at MM Hills and Hanur in Kollegal taluk to get feedback from local stakeholders and villagers on the issue.
In both places, there was strong opposition from the local people against the proposal. While nearly 400 people attended the MM Hills hearing, about 70 attended the Hanur hearing.
The crux of the argument against upgrading MM Hills to a tiger reserve was that the entire area lacked basic facilities. If MM Hills were to be declared a tiger reserve, it would further act as a hindrance to the development of the region, villagers said.
There was a perception that declaring the sanctuary a tiger reserve would lead to many restrictions on the kind of development that could take place in the region and people were expressing their concerns over this. The regulations will become too strict and the region will continue to remain underdeveloped, the villagers argued. There were also fears that the existing tribal population living in the enclosures would be displaced.
The proposal to upgrade the sanctuary to a tiger reserve has been under discussion for more than five years. Although it received approval from the State Wildlife Board and the National Wildlife Board, the Karnataka government did not issue a final notification. V. Somanna, who was the district in-charge minister in 2022, publicly announced that hundreds of tribals live in enclosures inside the sanctuary and the proposal would hinder their development.
However, conservationists sought tiger reserve status on the grounds that the pristine forest spread over 902 sq km could act as a sink to absorb the spilled tiger population from BRT Tiger Reserve, Cauvery Wildlife Sanctuary and Satyamangalam Tiger Reserve in Tamil Nadu. It was also argued that any relocation program must be voluntary and no village or enclosure could be forcibly evicted under existing law.
The National Tiger Conservation Authority, in its reports, said that if the sanctuary were to be upgraded to a tiger reserve, it would be ecologically sustainable.
Meanwhile, Bhaskar, Deputy Conservator of Forests, MM Hills Wildlife Sanctuary, said he would submit the public hearing report to the government, which would comment on the matter.
Published – 31 Oct 2025 20:18 IST
