A group of youngsters has been on hunger strike in Wayanad to protest the decade-old night travel ban on NH that passes through the Bandipur Tiger Reserve.
“Because it is a very critical and important issue that the people of Wayanad are facing, and they were suffering, I decided to come here and meet you all,” said Wayanad MP Rahul Gandhi as he joined the ongoing hunger strike in the district’s Sultan Bathery town, on Friday. For the last one week, youngsters and Congress party members have been on a hunger strike, protesting the decade-old night travel ban on the National Highway that passes through the Bandipur Tiger Reserve in Karnataka-Kerala border. The people in Wayanad, especially those in Sultan Bathery, say that the traffic ban between 9 pm and 6 am has increased their travel time. Students from across the district, too, have joined the protests in Sulthan Bathery. A few protesters were even hospitalised at Vinayaka hospital as a result of their prolonged fast. After visiting the young protesters, Rahul Gandhi addressed the public at the protest site. “They are a few youngsters, but they represent the people of this constituency, their sufferings and their thoughts,” he said. He also stressed that all political parties are united in the matter. “There is no political difference between parties in this matter. This issue has to be resolved in an intelligent, sensitive and productive manner. I am confident a compromising solution can be reached where the people of Wayanad benefit and the environment is also protected. This has been achieved in other parts of the country, and I am sure it can be achieved here as well,” he said. The Kerala government had proposed that the ban can be bypassed on a 25-km stretch of National Highway 766 with an elevated corridor. It had suggested that the elevator corridor can be built by cutting through a core part of the forest. However, environmentalists had pointed out that this could adversely affect the forest habitat, which consists of more than one hundred tigers in the reserve. Read: Kerala CM’s push for Bandipur elevated corridor irks environmentalists in both states In early August, the Supreme Court had upheld the night traffic ban. Stating that the best legal resources have been made available to represent the people of Wayanad, the MP said, “I have spoken to our legal experts and have asked to help us with the legality of this issue. I have raised this issue in the Parliament, the Union government, and even Kerala government also said it will act in the interest of Wayanad and resolve the problem as soon as possible.” While the Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa had said that he will not go against the court and will not allow vehicles in the night in Bandipur forest area, his Kerala counterpart had recently met Union Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar to discuss the matter. Following this, the Centre said a committee would be set up to study the matter. During the visit to his constituency, Rahul Gandhi also allocated Rs 3.85 crore of MPLADS (Members of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme) towards various development projects.
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