The controversy over the rejection of conservation reserve status to the last remaining grasslands in the city at Hesaraghatta has not yet died down. In the new budget, unveiled on March 8, Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa announced a ‘theme park’ spread over 100 acres at Hesaraghatta. This has not gone down well with environmentalists and conservation activists.
“A theme park will be established on 100 acres in Hesaraghatta with private partnership to provide information and training with permanent exhibition and demonstration of native livestock, breeds of sheep/goats and poultry breeds,” Mr. Yediyurappa said in his speech.
This has raised many an eyebrow as it comes on the back of a big blow to conservation efforts for the grasslands during the recent meeting of the State Wildlife Board on January 19. The Chief Minister had shot down the proposal to declare it ‘Greater Hesaraghatta grasslands conservation reserve’.
Board members, some of who went on to file written objections, alleged that the proposal was shot down due to the intervention of Yelahanka MLA S.R. Vishwanath. According to the minutes of the board meeting, a copy of which is available with The Hindu, Mr. Vishwanath was a ‘special invitee’. The MLA argued against the proposal, saying there was a shortage of government land for developmental works. The minutes also mention board members who supported the proposal.
Reacting to the new theme park project announced in the budget, one of the board members, who had filed his dissent, said this was the wrong time to announce new plans for the area. “On the contrary, you can't allot land there for anything now as a lot of things are still open-ended. How can you announce a project on 100 acres? It suddenly becomes private property,” said the member.
Conservationist and photographer Mahesh Bhat pointed out that Hesaraghatta already has poultry and livestock research institutes. “Farmers have been visiting and getting trained in various aspects of animal husbandry for decades. There is no need to set up a theme park for this now. This only shows the myopia of the government.”
The Hesaraghatta lake bed and grasslands in the surrounding catchment area are considered an important reservoir of biodiversity and a refuge for endangered wildlife species like the Lesser Florican and the leopard, and the place is home to over 130 species of birds, many mammals and butterflies and millions of insects.
Coincidentally, the 2021-22 budget mentions a grant of ₹50 lakh for conservation programmes of Lesser Florican, which is on the verge of extinction.
“It is great that some amount of concern has been shown for conservation of this bird. They should know first and foremost that habitat needs to be conserved. They should not go and plant trees on the grasslands and build watchtowers as they did in Siraguppa where GIBs were sighted. However, it makes me wonder how the same government that allocates funds for conservation of a grassland species doesn’t agree to conserve its habitat at Hesaraghatta,” Mr. Bhat said.