Karnataka chief minister D K Shivakumar has urged the Centre to expedite wildlife clearance for the proposed Mekedatu drinking water project, clarifying that the state is currently seeking permission only to drill 20 boreholes for geotechnical investigations and not to divert protected forest land.
Shivakumar made the request during a meeting with Union environment minister Bhupender Yadav in New Delhi on Thursday, asking him to have the National Board for Wildlife’s standing committee consider the proposal and make an early recommendation.
“The proposal is only related to survey and investigation activities and does not currently seek diversion of any protected area land for the project,” Shivakumar said in his representation.
Karnataka submitted the proposal to the Union environment ministry on July 1, seeking permission to drill 20 boreholes across 0.0000352 hectares within the Cauvery Wildlife Sanctuary. The investigations are intended to provide geotechnical information for the proposed Mekedatu balancing reservoir and drinking water project.
The state’s request is therefore for permission to investigate the proposed site rather than for approval to construct the reservoir or divert sanctuary land for the project.
The Centre has sought additional documents on the status of petitions relating to Mekedatu pending before the Supreme Court. “The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change has recently sought essential documents/information regarding the status of various petitions pending before the Supreme Court in relation to this matter, which will be provided shortly,” Shivakumar said.
Mekedatu is proposed as a balancing reservoir and drinking water project on the Cauvery, with Karnataka seeking to use it to meet Bengaluru’s drinking water requirements. The project has also faced objections from Tamil Nadu over its implications for downstream water flows and the sharing of Cauvery waters.
Shivakumar asked Yadav to consider the Mekedatu proposal along with the state’s request concerning the Sharavathi pumped storage project. “In this regard, as chairman of the Standing Committee of NBWL, I request you to kindly examine and recommend the above two proposals at the earliest,” he said.
The chief minister also asked the Centre not to finalise its seventh draft notification on declaring parts of the Western Ghats as an ecologically sensitive area based on the Kasturirangan report until Karnataka completes physical surveys.
“I request that the seventh draft notification issued by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change on 27 July 2026 regarding declaration of the Western Ghats Eco Sensitive Area based on the Kasturirangan report may not be finalised,” he said.
Shivakumar said the state government’s high-level committee should first submit its report, followed by physical surveys over a year before the notification is finalised.
“Until the physical survey is completed within a period of one year after submission of the report of the High Level Committee constituted by the state government, the notification should not be finalised,” he said, adding that the Centre could take further action in consultation with Karnataka.