<p>Bengaluru: The Central Empowered Committee (CEC) will submit a report to the Supreme Court detailing the impact of the reduction in the Eco-Sensitive Zone (ESZ) around the Bannerghatta National Park (BNP), CEC member Chandra Prakash Goyal said on Friday.</p>.<p>Eco-Sensitive Zones act as buffer areas to regulate anthropogenic activities around protected forests.</p>.<p>The draft ESZ notification issued in 2016 proposed a buffer ranging from 100 metres to 4.5 km from the boundary of BNP. However, the state government revised the proposal in May 2018, and the final notification issued by the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) reduced the maximum ESZ width to just 1 km. This revision shrank the total ESZ area from 268.8 sqkm to 168.84 sqkm.</p>.Residents of Bengaluru's Vasanthnagar stage silent protest against tree felling.<p>Spread across a core area of 260.51 sqkm, the BNP forms part of a larger 1,400-sqkm wildlife habitat and is recognised as the terminal point of the Mysuru Elephant Reserve. The park is home to elephants, tigers, leopards, dholes, sloth bears and several other species.</p>.<p>Goyal’s visit to Bengaluru followed a writ petition filed before the apex court by KB Belliappa and others, challenging the reduction in the ESZ boundary. After a presentation by the petitioners, the CEC member held discussions with officials of the Forest Department.</p>.<p>Asked whether the CEC’s report would specifically address concerns related to elephant corridors, Goyal said, “That is the basic plea in the petition.”</p>.<p>The petitioners pointed out that BNP has three critical elephant corridors — the Karadikal–Madeshwara corridor, the Tali–Belikkal corridor and the Bilikal–Jawalagiri corridor.</p>.<p>They argued that the reduction in the buffer zone violates the ESZ Guidelines, 2001, issued by the MoEF&CC. Guideline 4.2 states that ecologically sensitive corridors, connectivity zones and important habitat patches extending beyond 10 km should be included within the ESZ.</p>.<p><strong>Agri land turning into layouts</strong></p>.<p>Farmers Somashekhar and Shivakumar, from villages around Bannerghatta, also met the CEC member to raise concerns over the conversion of agricultural land into residential layouts.</p>.<p>They alleged that although the final ESZ notification was issued only in 2020, government officials had been pressuring them to sell land as early as 2013.</p>.<p>Portions of land surrendered then were later developed into the Suryanagar Layout by the Karnataka Housing Board, they said.</p>.<p>Asked whether the CEC would examine allegations of a premeditated attempt to acquire farmland along the forest boundary and the mushrooming of resorts, Goyal said, “We will look into that.”</p>.<p>Forest Department officials have linked the rapid conversion of farmland into layouts to the rise in human–leopard conflict in the region.</p>
<p>Bengaluru: The Central Empowered Committee (CEC) will submit a report to the Supreme Court detailing the impact of the reduction in the Eco-Sensitive Zone (ESZ) around the Bannerghatta National Park (BNP), CEC member Chandra Prakash Goyal said on Friday.</p>.<p>Eco-Sensitive Zones act as buffer areas to regulate anthropogenic activities around protected forests.</p>.<p>The draft ESZ notification issued in 2016 proposed a buffer ranging from 100 metres to 4.5 km from the boundary of BNP. However, the state government revised the proposal in May 2018, and the final notification issued by the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) reduced the maximum ESZ width to just 1 km. This revision shrank the total ESZ area from 268.8 sqkm to 168.84 sqkm.</p>.Residents of Bengaluru's Vasanthnagar stage silent protest against tree felling.<p>Spread across a core area of 260.51 sqkm, the BNP forms part of a larger 1,400-sqkm wildlife habitat and is recognised as the terminal point of the Mysuru Elephant Reserve. The park is home to elephants, tigers, leopards, dholes, sloth bears and several other species.</p>.<p>Goyal’s visit to Bengaluru followed a writ petition filed before the apex court by KB Belliappa and others, challenging the reduction in the ESZ boundary. After a presentation by the petitioners, the CEC member held discussions with officials of the Forest Department.</p>.<p>Asked whether the CEC’s report would specifically address concerns related to elephant corridors, Goyal said, “That is the basic plea in the petition.”</p>.<p>The petitioners pointed out that BNP has three critical elephant corridors — the Karadikal–Madeshwara corridor, the Tali–Belikkal corridor and the Bilikal–Jawalagiri corridor.</p>.<p>They argued that the reduction in the buffer zone violates the ESZ Guidelines, 2001, issued by the MoEF&CC. Guideline 4.2 states that ecologically sensitive corridors, connectivity zones and important habitat patches extending beyond 10 km should be included within the ESZ.</p>.<p><strong>Agri land turning into layouts</strong></p>.<p>Farmers Somashekhar and Shivakumar, from villages around Bannerghatta, also met the CEC member to raise concerns over the conversion of agricultural land into residential layouts.</p>.<p>They alleged that although the final ESZ notification was issued only in 2020, government officials had been pressuring them to sell land as early as 2013.</p>.<p>Portions of land surrendered then were later developed into the Suryanagar Layout by the Karnataka Housing Board, they said.</p>.<p>Asked whether the CEC would examine allegations of a premeditated attempt to acquire farmland along the forest boundary and the mushrooming of resorts, Goyal said, “We will look into that.”</p>.<p>Forest Department officials have linked the rapid conversion of farmland into layouts to the rise in human–leopard conflict in the region.</p>
