HC stays handing over of Puttenahalli Lake Bird Conservation Reserve to BBMP

The Karnataka High Court on Wednesday (July 1) stayed the order of the State Government handing over Puttenahalli Lake Bird Conservation Reserve at Yelahanka to Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP). 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 BBMP.

A division bench comprising Chief Justice Abhay S Oka and Justice Nataraj Rangaswamy passed the order on the petition filed by Yelahanka Puttenahalli Lake and Bird Conservation Trust. The State Government on December 11, 2019 handed over the management of the lake to the BBMP. The High 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 their habitat. The state cannot entrust the responsibility to BBMP. We stay in 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 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 Order issued on December 11, 2019, transferred the conservation reserve to the BBMP.

In the previous hearings, the High 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.