Greens plan legal battle as eco-sensitive zone around BNP shrinks
TNN | Updated: Mar 16, 2019, 06:44 IST
Bannerghatta National Park in BengaluruBENGALURU: City environmentalists are all set to challenge the recent recommendation of a central government committee to drastically shrink the eco-sensitive zone (ESZ) around Bannerghatta National Park (BNP).
Environmentalist Vijay Nishanth, who has been campaigning for the protection of BNP, said they will be approaching the apex court before the final notification on the revised ESZ is issued.
“BNP is already under tremendous pressure due to human activities, including illegal quarrying, encroachments, road development works, etc. Reducing the buffer zone will be detrimental to the forest and wildlife. It will also increase instances of human-wildlife conflict. We will soon explore the right legal way to tackle the problem,” said Vijay.
The purpose of declaring ESZs is to create some kind of “shock absorbers” to protected areas.
The 33rd expert committee meeting on ESZ, held in New Delhi on February 28, under the chairpersonship of AK Jain, additional secretary with the ministry of environment, forest & climate change, has given a go-ahead for the finalisation of about 169 sq km (168.8 sq km) of ESZ for BNP. This is a drastic reduction from the earlier proposed ESZ of 268.9 sq km.
While BNP is spread over 260 sq km, the recently finalised ESZ will extend only in a range of 100m to 1km around the park. On the other hand, the original draft had proposed a ESZ in the range 100m to 4.5km. According to the new draft, only 77 villages will come under the ESZ, as against the earlier proposal which included 147 villages.
Human habitations posing hurdle
Members of the expert committee also discussed extending the area of proposed ESZ toward Bengaluru city. However, SK Malkhede, additional principal chief conservator of forest (APCCF) wildlife, government of Karnataka, contended that it’d be difficult to further expand the ESZ because of human dwellings.
“Now that the central government has taken a decision, we have to follow the order once the notification is finalised. In fact, regulation of human activities, including stopping of certain illegal quarries in the park periphery in the recent past, had helped wild animals reoccupy their space. Now, we have to see what the fallout of this decision is,” said Prashant Shankinamath, deputy conservator of forest, BNP.
Environmentalist Vijay Nishanth, who has been campaigning for the protection of BNP, said they will be approaching the apex court before the final notification on the revised ESZ is issued.
“BNP is already under tremendous pressure due to human activities, including illegal quarrying, encroachments, road development works, etc. Reducing the buffer zone will be detrimental to the forest and wildlife. It will also increase instances of human-wildlife conflict. We will soon explore the right legal way to tackle the problem,” said Vijay.
The purpose of declaring ESZs is to create some kind of “shock absorbers” to protected areas.
The 33rd expert committee meeting on ESZ, held in New Delhi on February 28, under the chairpersonship of AK Jain, additional secretary with the ministry of environment, forest & climate change, has given a go-ahead for the finalisation of about 169 sq km (168.8 sq km) of ESZ for BNP. This is a drastic reduction from the earlier proposed ESZ of 268.9 sq km.
While BNP is spread over 260 sq km, the recently finalised ESZ will extend only in a range of 100m to 1km around the park. On the other hand, the original draft had proposed a ESZ in the range 100m to 4.5km. According to the new draft, only 77 villages will come under the ESZ, as against the earlier proposal which included 147 villages.
Human habitations posing hurdle
Members of the expert committee also discussed extending the area of proposed ESZ toward Bengaluru city. However, SK Malkhede, additional principal chief conservator of forest (APCCF) wildlife, government of Karnataka, contended that it’d be difficult to further expand the ESZ because of human dwellings.
“Now that the central government has taken a decision, we have to follow the order once the notification is finalised. In fact, regulation of human activities, including stopping of certain illegal quarries in the park periphery in the recent past, had helped wild animals reoccupy their space. Now, we have to see what the fallout of this decision is,” said Prashant Shankinamath, deputy conservator of forest, BNP.
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