Once There Was A River

The most shocking fact is that nobody downstream of Dandeli drinks Kali water. A new World Bank Project has been initiated to supply potable water to villages around Dandeli. "In some ways, the World Bank is paying for the mill's pollution," says Hegde. Nearly 70 kms from Dandeli, towards Karwar, people use water from Bedthi river. "It is strange that a river that should be the peoples' lifeline is so avoided. It happens nowhere in the world," says N. Chapakand, a resident.

Taking note of the air and water pollution caused by the paper mill, the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB) served a closure notice on it four months ago. "But the mill got a stay from the high court. They informed us that they have invested Rs 8 to 9 crore on a treatment plant and have sought permission to start a powerhouse so that they could divert the various gases produced in the boilers to generate power. We will inspect the facility soon," says KSPCB chairman N. Bhoomanand Manay. All efforts by Outlook to secure a comment from the West Coast Paper Mills proved futile.

At Kaiga, near the nuclear power plant, folks at Balemane lead an anxious life. They are just 1.5 km from the nuclear plant on the opposite bank of Kali where radiation meters are fixed at various points. The readings on these meters are taken regularly, but the villagers are hardly told what the readings mean. "There is supposed to be no human habitation within a 3 km radius of a nuclear plant, but Balemane is just a stone's throw from it," says Panduranga Hegde.

At Karwar, our last stop, V.N. Nayak, a professor of Ocean Sciences with Karnataka University, gives us more alarming facts: "Kali is almost ruined," he says. "The sand and shell mining at the estuary and other places is disastrous. Shells are a rare mineral. The constant encroachment has destroyed marine life," he says. The alarm bells have been ringing for years now. Bahuguna hopes that the people's voice will be heard by the state. In any case, it has little to say in defence of the dams and industries which are pushing the Kali to extinction.