Lethal lines
green activists are up in arms against the ongoing work on the Kaiga atomic power plant in Karnataka. They have stalled work on the project's transmission line which cuts through the Western Ghats, posing a threat to the precious flora in the area. Local residents and green activists under the banner of Parisara Samiti, a local group of Sirsi in North Kanara district, have expressed their strong disapproval of the 400 kv-line being laid across the ecologically-sensitive Western Ghats.
Their protest has turned into a movement with the sole aim of halting the construction work undertaken by the Power Grid Corporation Limited. The minister of state for power, S B Darshanapur, recently admitted that the Kaiga project requires the clearance of 732 ha of dense forests. Ananta Kumar Ashisar, convenor of Parisara Samiti, said that his group would never allow power lines to be drawn across the Western Ghats."We have been demanding an alternative to the power line proposed by the government, if at all the Kaiga project should be allowed," he said.