Bengaluru NGO seeks PM’s intervention against unauthorised constructions around Bannerghatta National Park

The committee’s job is to oversee the implementation of the Zonal Master Plan for the BNP ESZ which includes watershed management and conservation of deprived areas among others.

Notably, the Union Ministry of Environment, Forests, and Climate Change (MOEF&CC) issued a draft notification on June 15, 2016, fixing the ESZ of the BNP to 268.96 sq km. The notification lapsed as the state government did not submit its views on the draft notification. A revised draft notification was issued by the MOEF&CC on October 30, 2018, which reduced the ESZ to 168.84 sq km, following which, a final notification was published by the Union government in March 2020.

Vishnu Narain, the managing trustee of the NGO, said the reduced ESZ not only eliminated areas which were crucial for the movement of elephants, it also endangered the wildlife population.

“The purpose of the open letter is to make your (PM and the officials) esteemed self duly informed of the problems faced by eco-conservation in the Bannerghatta National Park (BNP) where many immediate steps need to be taken to prevent the further degradation of this premier ecosystem and its rich biodiversity. Sincere efforts by the Karnataka Forest Department have yielded hardly any results in stemming this rot. The need of the hour is your personal intervention on a priority basis so that your efforts in connecting with nature and its inhabitants don’t go in vain,” Narain said in the letter.

“Fragmentation of the land is a grave risk to ecology and wildlife, and the growth of stone quarrying and industries around BNP threatens it and also increases pollution levels. Governmental agencies / statutory authorities like the Housing Board and the Department Mining have given permissions when they should not have. It defeats the very purpose of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972. The MOEF has reiterated that prior clearance of the SCNBWL (Standing Committee of the National Board for Wildlife) is required for development projects with the notified ESZ, but this has been contravened,” the letter said.

It further added, “The Eco-Sensitive Zone Monitoring Committee (MC) has not been constituted as required and unauthorised resorts are being set up with official connivance. Evidently, a committee needs to be set up and made active. Farming activities are allowed within the ESZ of the national park and several generations of farmers were involved in ragi cultivation. They claimed that even before the finalisation of the ESZ, the land mafias have repeatedly pressured them to relinquish their lands at throwaway prices. In October 2019, the farmers wrote a letter to the Chief Minister, BS Yediyurappa, listing their grievances and requesting him not to trim the ESZ.”

Narain requested the PM and other authorities to set aside the ESZ notification of 2018.