Drafted by whom for whom?

Bannerghatta National Park(BNP) is part of the contiguous wildlife habitat of nearly 1400 sqkms bordering Cauvery Wildlife Sanctuary and Jowalagiri Reserve Forest on South and eastern boundaries. All of these are part of the Mysore Elephant Reserve. BNP is at the terminal point of the Mysore Elephant Reserve on the northern side.

On 15 June, 2016, Ministry of Environment and forest (MOEF), issued a draft notification to declare an area of 268.9 sqkm as Eco-Sensitive Zone(ESZ) around BNP. This was done in response to the supreme court order, which said, in the absence of any such notification, the ESZ would be the 10kms radius around the park. The 2016 notification by MOEF expired as the state government didn’t submit its view. On 30thOct 2018, Karnataka government put forward a draft proposal, which reduced the ESZ to 169 sqkms. This is 100 sqkms lesser than the 2016 notification. Back in 1991, even before the concept of ESZ came into picture, the government had declared one km area around BNP as the safe zone. The new draft notification at some points is just 100mtrs from the park boundary eating away the safe zone.

Public comments for the notification to be sent to esz-mef@nic.in by 31 Dec 2018. The following are the comments were sent by Bangalore Environment Trust (BET) 

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The draft notification is highly objectionable. It shows utter disregard whatsoever with respect to protecting the BNP and absolute concern for special interests. It is rife with contradictions and is violations of many court orders. Some of the contradictions and violations are mentioned below:

1.     The residents of Bengaluru and the peri-urban areas are ravaged with death and diseases attributed to toxic air and polluted water. This is the time to increase green cover and decrease concrete cover. Reducing the ESZ area by 100 sqkms, is the most regressive step the government can take to protect the interest of public and wildlife. 

2.    One of the trustees, V. Balasubramanian, IAS, former Additional Chief Secretary, Karnataka, headed a Task Force to identify and clear encroachments on Government land. He visited BNP and nearby Panchayat on receiving complaints from the public. He found widespread encroachments from private resorts, estates, small scale industries, granite mining both inside and outside the park.A real estate developer has sold encroached land to NRIs in Dubai who built fortress-like mansions. Before Mr Balasubramanian could evict the encroachers, the Task Force was abruptly wound up in June 2011.If that was the situation in 2011, one can imagine the extent of violations in 2018. Would the public be wrong then to conclude that the present Notification is to help regularize the encroachments?

3.    Bangalore Environment Trust (BET) in collaboration with Seshadripuram college undertook a study last year on man-animal conflict in and around BNP. We discovered that fragmentation of forests from human activities like mining, quarrying, agriculture were the main drivers behind the conflicts. BET whose chairman is Dr Yellappa Reddy, has been in the forefront to stop mining/quarrying in and around BNP for decades. Despite BET’s and other concerned citizens efforts, mining and quarrying continues unabated. 

        The notification merely re-iterates the ban that has been in place for decades and cleverly excludes the area where these activities are happening. To add insult to injury, the draft notification provides a loop hole for mining and quarrying activities to continue by allowing those activities for the sake of bona-fide resident’s domestic needs. Even brick kilns are allowed for the bona-fide resident’s domestic needs. But not the Kirani shops.The notification very clearly restricts that Kirani shops must be located 1km from the boundary of the ESZ. Never-mind the mining, quarrying, brick kilns, solar farms, windfarms or the mini-hydel projects - the egregiously polluting and dangerous Kirani shops must be a km away from the protected area. 

4.    CPCB re-categorized industries in 2016 and introduced ‘white’ category. These are non-polluting industries which do not need EIA and consent to operate. In the list are solar farms, windfarms and mini-hydel projects up-to 25MW. To produce one MW solar energy with Photo Voltaic cells, 3.5 to 10 acres of land is needed.  For 25MW, the project will need a maximum of 250 acres of land. This cannot be done without re-purposing huge tracts of agricultural lands, horticultural lands and open spaces. In the name of non-polluting industries, the draft notification gives away land, surreptitiously, for industrial activity. The renewable energy projects are not benign as they are projected. They may not pollute in traditional sense of Air Act or water Act but ecological damage is far greater. Huge areas need to be denuded resulting in severe fragmentation, loss of bio-diversity and death of wildlife. Kanakapura is an overexploited block and concretized solar farms doesn’t allow for water recharge thus altering the hydrology of the place.

5.    There are several projects or stressors happening in and around the BNP. Some notable projects in the pipeline are Satellite Town Ring Road (STRR) and Mekedatu Dam. The STRR passes through the park and the dam submerges approximately 5000 hectares of forests, contiguous to BNP. A project by Cauvery Neeravari Nigama Ltd (CNNL), filling several hundred tanks in Kanakapura and Anekal with the secondary treated water from Kengeri STP and Bellandur lake STP is in the works without any Environmental clearance. Many of the tanks fall in the ESZ. CNNL is currently executing another project that fills many tanks in the ESZ, frequented by elephants, with untreated toxic waters of Arkavathy river. The majority of the flow to Arkavathy is from foaming and flammable lake, Byramangala.  This project is half-way through without any environmental clearance. How does wildlife fare, drinking untreated toxic waters laden with anti-biotic resistant superbugs? With all these stressors, nowhere is the talk of cumulative impact assessment. The notification has in no way addressed this.

6.   Seeking public comments is being done as a mere procedural formality. The residents of the villages under the ESZ, who are the largest stakeholders are not made aware of this notification and their inputs are not taken.

         

7.    The draft notification does not espouse in any way the role of the local people who live in the ESZ and thus violates the 73th amendment. Agriculture in some parts of Kanakapura ESZ, has long been done with toxic waters. The government has to take locals into confidence, stop these practices and enable them to become stewards of the forest by providing incentives. Forest protection and livelihood must be connected. The panchayat institutions should be strengthened to enable the village residents in the ESZ to conserve and preserve the forests.

8.  There are many harmful activities that are prohibited or regulated as per existing laws in the ESZ. The prohibited and regulated activities is sort of a joke of epic proportions. In one column, there is prohibited activities, and in the next column, is the ‘except’ clause which provides an escape to the prohibited activity. Many activities are regulated in accordance with existing laws. The existing laws doesn’t acknowledge the ESZ and there are no special provisions for it. Consequently, the land that comes under ESZ is not treated any differently from non-ESZ land.  A comprehensive review of the applicable laws has to be done and ESZ clause must be incorporated in those laws for special treatment in the ESZ area. In the absence of that, the current draft doesn’t accord any protection to the ESZ in anyway. 

             Looking at all this, one begs the question: The notification is drafted by whom for whom?We need all hands-on deck to save the last standing deteriorating forests. But the notification blatantly allows for polluting industries to continue in a business as usual manner.It is done as a mindless exercise because supreme court has a whip. It is toothless and will not bring any change in the form it is currently in…UNLESS the folks in the government care.