Bengaluru: Govt yet to decide on next wildlife board meeting, Hesaraghatta grasslands fate in limbo

A senior Indian Forest Service (IFS) Officer told indianexpress.com, “We have requested the CMO to decide on a new date last month. As of now, the meeting is not scheduled. There were many issues on the agenda of the SBWL meeting scheduled last month. Hesaraghatta was one of them.”

Volunteers of the ‘Save Hesaraghatta’ campaign reached Cubbon Park Sunday to discuss the importance of declaring the grasslands as a conservation reserve and how to take the campaign forward.

The Karnataka High Court in July sent back the proposal to declare more than 5,000 acres of the Hesaraghatta grasslands as a conservation reserve to the SBWL. The court was hearing a petition by ecologist Vijay Nishanth.

Vijay Nishanth said: “The next wildlife board meeting should be held soon. The government had earlier rejected the proposal of declaring Hesaraghatta grasslands as a reserve. It was only after the high court intervened, the matter was put up to be discussed. We need to protect this. A lot of disinformation is being spread among the locals by vested interests that once it is declared as a conservation reserve, farmers cannot graze cattle etc. Through the campaign, we are educating the people about the need to protect the grasslands.”

Social activist Jagadish Reddy said: “Nature is tolerant to a point but when the destruction becomes mindless she retaliates in a way wherein we are forced to mend our ways. The flooding of many homes during the recent heavy rains is a result of the backlash from nature. It also goes to show that conservation is far easier than damage control. Conserving this last grassland of Bengaluru will preserve the existing biodiversity, and most importantly, protect the interests of the farmers located there and consider Hesaraghatta their lifeline.”

In January 2021, former chief minister B S Yediyurappa rejected the proposal to declare the area as a conservation reserve after Yelahanka MLA S R Vishwanath opposed the idea. The wildlife board members stated that though Vishwanath was not a member of the wildlife board, he barged into the meeting and told Yediyurappa that the grasslands should not be declared as a reserve as it would affect the farmers. The former chief minister reportedly did not ask for opinions from the board members and rejected the proposal.