Hesaraghatta Grassland needs to be conserved

COP27, the conference of the parties of the 2022 UN climate change conference, concluded on a positive note recently. Nobody can ignore the controversy related to the Hesaraghatta Grassland in Karnataka. Whether to declare it a conservation reserve or not has been a bone of contention. Spread over 5,000 acres, it supports some of the rarest forms of vegetation and helps in carbon sequestration by capturing atmospheric carbon dioxide. It helps in recharging groundwater, too. An insect, neodusmetia sangwani, was discovered from this grassland and was used to control Rhodesgrass scale infection in the US. A decision on its future is of larger public interest and can’t be one of short-term political gain.

Ravinder Kumar Thakur

Kishtwar