HC stays handing over Puttenahalli lake bird reserve to BBMP

The High Court stayed the government's order of handing over the Puttenahalli Lake Bird Conservation Reserve at Yelahanka to the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP).

On Wednesday, a division bench of Chief Justice Abhay S Oka and Justice Nataraj Rangaswamy passed the order on the petition filed by the Yelahanka Puttenahalli Lake and Bird Conservation Trust.

The petition contended that the control of a conservation reserve, as declared under Section 36A of the Wild Life Act, cannot be handed over to the civic body.

The government on December 11, 2019, handed over the management of the lake to the Palike. The court directed the government not to take any further action on the order.

"The basic object of the conservation reserve is to protect the landscape, flora, fauna, and habitat. The state cannot entrust the responsibility to the BBMP. We stay the operation of the impugned order insofar as this lake conservation reserve. We direct the state to place on record the action taken to reconstitute the conservation reservation management committee on July 20,’’ the bench stated.

The forest area comprising government land at the lake was declared as the Puttenahalli Lake Birds Conservation Reserve through a notification on April 29, 2015, in the exercise of the powers under Section 36A of the Wild Life Act. However, the government's December order transferred the conservation reserve to the BBMP.

In the previous hearings, the court had observed that a conservation reserve should be managed by a committee.

"In fact, under Section 36B of the Wild Life Act, the state government is under an obligation to constitute a Conservation Reserve Management Committee to advise the Chief WildLife Warden to conserve, manage and maintain the conservation reserve,’’ the bench had observed.