Farmers Stage Mass Protest March in Hosanagara Against Western Ghats ESA Notification

Hundreds of farmers, cooperative society members, and local leaders in Hosanagara taluk staged a major protest march on August 29, 2026, voicing strong opposition to the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change's seventh draft notification on the Western Ghats Ecologically Sensitive Area (ESA). Organized under the banner of the Western Ghats Raitha Sahakara Vedike, the nine-kilometre march commenced from the Karanagiri Siddi Vinayaka Temple and culminated in a massive public gathering in Hosanagara town. The protesters raised slogans against the draft notification, which proposes designating over 20,668 square kilometres across Karnataka as eco-sensitive, directly affecting 125 villages in Hosanagara taluk alone. Local agriculturalists fear that severe restrictions under the ESA framework could disrupt routine farming activities, plantation work, housing construction, and rural infrastructure development across the Malnad region. Elected representatives and community leaders who participated in the rally emphasized that while environmental protection is essential, the livelihoods of long-settled farmers must not be compromised. The primary demand put forward to the state and central governments is a comprehensive physical ground survey of the land to precisely identify and exclude human habitations, cultivated agricultural lands, and arecanut plantations from the final ESA boundaries. For residents of Hosanagara, the protest highlights deep-seated anxieties over land tenure and livelihood security, signaling continued local agitation if their concerns are not addressed before the 60-day objection period expires.