A final decision on the declaration of Karnataka’s Hesaraghatta grasslands as a conservation reserve will be made only after public consultation with local residents and environmentalists, Chief Minister Basavraj Bommai said. The State Wildlife Board, chaired by the Chief Minister, met on Thursday, November 3, to discuss the classification of Karnataka’s last grassland as a conservation reserve.
The Karnataka Forest Department has been tasked with carrying out a public consultation, and members of the wildlife board can also accompany department officials. Siddharth Goenka, a Member of the State Board for Wildlife (SBWL) said that there were misconceptions about land acquisition if the 5,010-acre grassland was declared as a conservation reserve. He clarified that a Conservation Reserve (CR) declared under Section 36A of the Wildlife Protection Act 1972 (WLPA) does not involve the acquisition of land or settlement of rights of local people. “Therefore, all legal rights of the residents in and around a Conservation Reserve shall continue and the question of eviction simply does not arise. Importantly the proposal which is in the public domain does not envisage the inclusion of any privately held land,” he said.
He further added that there is no mandatory legal requirement of notifying a buffer zone or eco-sensitive zone around the CR as in the case of a sanctuary or national Park. On wildlife being introduced after the declaration, he said, “The CR will be declared to preserve the existing species inhabiting the area and the fear that large wild animals would be introduced to the space is completely baseless.”
The decision of public consultation came amid pressure from local people and various environmental activists who demanded the government take steps to protect the grasslands. Ahead of the State Wildlife Board meeting, residents of Bengaluru and urban environmentalists had launched a petition urging the government to declare Hesaraghatta grasslands as a conservation reserve. As many as 75,000 people signed the petition and handed it over to the principal chief conservator of forest Vijaykumar Gogi on November 2.
The State Board for Wildlife turned down the Forest Department's request to declare the grasslands as the Greater Hesaraghatta Grasslands Conservation Reserve in 2021. Later in July, the High Court directed the State Board for Wildlife to reevaluate the decision to declare the grasslands as a conservation reserve.
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