Mangaluru: Kolar should develop strategies to conserve and manage the water available within its own landscape instead of depending on water diverted from elsewhere, said agricultural scientist KN Ganeshaiah.Speaking at the Rostrum programme organised by the Alva’s Education Foundation on ‘Invisible Threads of Nature: The Reins of the Ecosystem’ at the Dr VS Acharya Auditorium here on Tuesday, Ganeshaiah said diverting water to address Kolar’s scarcity could have ecological consequences that may not be immediately visible.“Coming from Kolar myself, I do not see this as a controversy. I have been saying for a long time that people in the region should not depend on water brought from elsewhere. Around 2014, when I was associated with a literary programme in Kolar, I openly told my own people that they should learn to conserve and manage the water that falls within their region. The water that falls on our land is our own resource. We should develop strategies to harvest, conserve and recharge it, and ensure that it remains fit for human use and survival,” he said.He urged the people of Kolar to strengthen local water resources through comprehensive rainwater harvesting and conservation measures. “Do not kill the invisible threads by diverting water,” he said.Dr Ganeshaiah said water systems were interconnected through several ecological processes, many of which remained invisible until they were disrupted. Engineering interventions that appeared to offer immediate solutions could, therefore, produce unintended consequences elsewhere, he cautioned.Responding to a question on whether the Madhav Gadgil report was better than the Kasturirangan report, Ganeshaiah, who was a member of the Gadgil committee, said the panel’s intention was not to oppose development, but to ensure that at least some ecologically fragile parts of the Western Ghats remained free from intensive development.“We know that we need development, but at least a part of our ecosystem should be freed from development,” he said.Presiding over the programme, Alva’s Education Foundation trustee Vivek Alva urged young people to question not only the world around them, but also themselves. He stressed that keeping curiosity alive, maintaining clarity of thought and taking responsibility for one’s actions were essential to building a better society.
