New Delhi: Almost a month after the Supreme Court laid down the 100-metre rule in the Aravalli range, the issue burst—suddenly and noisily—into the studios of 24×7 television and the columns of the English press. As night follows day, it became staple fodder for 9 pm prime-time discussion, with the NDA government firmly placed in the dock. A convenient narrative was stitched together.

Optically, it could not have come at a worse time. Only days earlier, residents of the Delhi–NCR region had delivered a stinging remark on the NDA’s handling of toxic air. With public patience already thin, the Aravalli controversy forced Union environment minister Bhupender Yadav into damage-control mode, issuing assurances of a blanket ban on mining across the range.

Sensing blood, the Congress charged into the arena. Jairam Ramesh, party leader and chairman of its media wing, donned his familiar green mantle, projecting himself as the custodian of India’s environmental conscience. But the high moral ground claimed by both sides begins to look distinctly swampy when one shifts the gaze southwards—to the Western Ghats of Karnataka. Here, the rhetoric of conservation is muted under the weight of political expediency, as both national parties appear eager to sacrifice ecology at the altar of “development”.

Karnataka’s Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar recently announced that the state government had granted in-principle approval to prepare a Detailed Project Report for the Bedti–Varada river-linking project, cutting through the heart of the Western Ghats. His reported remark—“Who will say no to a project when the Centre may give Rs 9,000 crore?”—lays bare the governing philosophy: when money beckons, ecological prudence can wait.

The National Water Development Agency, under the Union Ministry of Jal Shakti, has been tasked with preparing the DPR, after both the sides signed a MoU on December 23. This decision........

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