Legislative Assembly Deputy Speaker Mankal Vaidya on Tuesday said the people of Uttara Kannada had made enormous sacrifices for development projects in the district and would be forced to migrate to neighbouring Goa if the State failed to protect their interests in dealing with the Kasturirangan report.

Mr. Vaidya, who represents the Bhatkal Assembly constituency, said more than half of the district’s 14 lakh population lived in the Western Ghats region and could be affected if the report was implemented in its present form.

Participating in the debate in the Assembly on the report’s implications for livelihoods, he said the people had given up large tracts of land for several major projects, including the Konkan Railway, Seabird naval base, Kaiga Nuclear Power Station, five hydel projects and national highways. Nearly 21,000 acres had been acquired for the Seabird project alone, he said.

If the Kasturirangan recommendations were implemented in their present form, towns such as Bhatkal, Sirsi, and Honnavar would be affected, and more than 85,000 families could face displacement, Mr. Vaidya said. “We will have to move either to the 13 islands or to Goa,” he said.

A State Cabinet meeting held in Mangaluru last week proposed to develop tourism in 13 islands on the State’s coast.

Urging the state government to oppose the recommendations before the National Green Tribunal, Mr. Vaidya said the people of Uttara Kannada deserved justice. “Because of multiple projects and now the Kasturirangan report, no one is living with happiness in the district,” he said.

He also questioned the contribution of the Forest Department to forest conservation, saying farmers and local communities had traditionally protected forests while sharing fruits and vegetables from their farms with wildlife. Farmers were losing a significant portion of their coconut and jackfruit produce because of crop damage caused by wildlife, he said.

BJP member S. Suresh Kumar suggested that the Chief Ministers of all six Western Ghats States meet and arrive at a unanimous position on implementing the recommendations. With the population of the region declining, several houses in the coastal and Malnad areas had effectively become old-age homes, he said, stressing the need to protect local livelihoods.