Prepare report on saving elephant corridor: Top Karnataka forest official tells Bannerghatta National Park deputy conservator of forest

Notably, a Bengaluru-based NGO, Bannerghatta Nature Conservation Trust, had written an open letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Union environment ministry, and the Karnataka forest department asking for their intervention in saving the elephant corridor of Bannerghatta National Park.

The NGO had also raised the issue of unauthorised construction activities around the national park. It further highlighted that the Eco Sensitive Zone (ESZ) monitoring committee of the BNP has not been set up yet.

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 denuded areas, among all.

Following this, the project elephant division of the Union environment ministry on May 11 directed Ranjan to submit a report on the matter.

“In this context it is requested to look into the matter and take appropriate action, and submit a report to the Ministry. The requisite report may be sent to this Ministry through email at the earliest please,” the ministry said.

The 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 as sought by the Centre. A revised draft notification was issued by the MOEF&CC on October 30, 2018, which reduced the ESZ to 168.84 sq km. A final notification fixing the ESZ to 168.84 sq km was published by the Union government in March 2020.

Vishnu Narain, managing trustee of the Bannerghatta Nature Conservation Trust, said the reduced ESZ not only eliminated areas that were crucial for the movement of elephants but also endangered the wildlife population.

“Upon comparing the 2016 and 2018 ESZ notifications, it was found that several crucial areas within the elephant corridor in BNP, the Cauvery Sanctuary, and the North Cauvery Sanctuary in Tamil Nadu have been excluded without any justification. In other words, crucial corridors have been eliminated, endangering not just the elephants but the entire wildlife population of Mudumalai-Bannerghatta National Park lifeline,” the NGO claimed in the open letter.

“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 activity is 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,” the NGO further said.