As the city struggles to save its environment, the quarrying, real estate and water bottling mafia have laid siege to the pristine Bannerghatta National Park (BNP).
While the bottling unit has been operating without the statutory clearances at Ragihalli, where groundwater resources have run dry over the last few years, a residential layout has illegally occupied over 50 hectares of land in the eco-sensitive zone (ESZ) of the national park. The residential layout has not obtained any permission from the National Board for Wildlife (NBWL), which is mandatory.
Alarmed by uncontrolled development activities within the protected zone, the Bannerghatta Nature Conservation Trust sent a letter in June to the Ministry of Environment Forest and Climate Change and the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) giving details of blatant violations in the ESZ. The letter also mentioned about the ramifications of widening of a road through the ESZ.
Replying to the letter, the union ministry stated that it has asked the state government to take stern action. But Trust Coordinator Bhanu Prakash R. revealed that there has been no response from the state government so far.
As far as stone quarrying is concerned, he said, “The quarrying licence is supposed to have been cancelled. But pictures clearly show quarrying still continuing in the ESZ. The government is yet to respond to our concerns.”
A whistleblower said that he even brought it to the notice of the forest department. But there has been no action on the ground.
Vijay Nishanth, Project Vruksha founder, who was at the forefront of a protest against the quarrying lobby last year, said that if the state government is callous, the Centre should jump in.
“The writing is clear on the wall that large amounts of money of the mining industry are involved. The central government should send some officials and stop the brazen violation of rules and question the wrong committed. They should also investigate the political-mafia nexus,” he said.
Besides refusing to take action against violators, the government also sought to transfer honest forest officers from important posts. In October 2018, the then Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy transferred Mr Ravindra Kumar, who was instrumental in recovering 130 acres of forest land in different parts of the city occupied by influential people. Citizens and wildlife enthusiasts raised in unison and slammed the chief minister for signing the order.
The government had also transferred Range Forest Officer (RFO) of the BNP, Ganesh V., but withdrew the order after a large number of citizens slammed the government on social media.
Mr Nishanth said, “The government wants to do away with honest officers so that violations can continue without any problem.”
Around 6 pm on July 23, environmentalists reported loud blasts and smoke billowing from the quarry area.
‘Revenue Dept should book quarry owners’
Conservationists have demanded that action should be taken against officers, who wore blinkers when the park is being looted right under their nose.
In a letter to the state government, the Bannerghatta Nature Conservation Trust specified that the government departments should scrutinise all records and cancel environment clearances given to projects that are in violation of the National Board for Wildlife (NBWL) rules and take action against errant officials.
Former Principal Chief Conservator of Forest, B.K. Singh, said, "ESZ of the BNP has been notified with the strip ranging from 50 metre to 4 km and an area covering 268 sqkm. The state has subsequently proposed for reduction of this zone to 100 sqkm with the intention of helping quarrying, which is prohibited in ESZ. The Union government should reject the modification. In the absence of any other notification, the earlier notification should be complied with."
He said, “Further, the revenue and mines departments should ensure that no quarrying is continued in the ESZ. As forest officers have no power to book quarry offenders working in non-forest areas of the Eco-Sensitive Zone, Revenue Department officials should book them.”
