Karnataka govt withdraws biodiversity heritage tag for Cantonment wooded area

Bengaluru: The state government has withdrawn the biodiversity heritage tag for the 8.61-acre wooded area near the Cantonment railway station.

In a notification dated December 6, the Forest, Ecology and Environment Department said the government was withdrawing the September 9 notification, which conferred the tag, “with immediate effect”.

The withdrawal has come as a surprise for some in the conservation circle. However, sources in the department noted that the decision has several legal issues unless the government was ready to compensate for the land.

While Section 37 of the Biological Diversity Act 2002 allows the government to declare heritage sites and frame guidelines to manage them, Section 37(3) places the onus on the government to provide compensation when such a site belongs to affected parties.

The Karnataka Biodiversity Board recommended the tag following popular demand by activists to save 371 trees. It was feared that many of the trees would be felled for a development project being taken up as part of measures to boost the non-fare revenue of the suburban rail project.

The state government, which notified the decision, had to either provide hundreds of crores of rupees as compensation to the railways or withdraw the notification, allowing the development to proceed.