Bengaluru: The Karnataka State Board for Wildlife (KSBWL) will now decide whether to accept the request made by the Chief Conservator of Forests (CCF) to declare Hesaraghatta grasslands as a Conservation Reserve under Section 36A of the Wild Life (Protection) Act.
Two PILs filed by Vijay Nishanth, M. R. Seetharam, and others were quashed by a division bench of Acting Chief Justice Alok Aradhe and Justice S. Vishwajith Shetty. The court ruled that the Board acted hastily in passing the order, therefore dismissing the KSBWL decision of January 19, 2021 to reject a proposal by the CCF.
“The impugned order reflects non-application of mind. Since it is cryptic, the same cannot be sustained in the eye of law,” it observed.
As the last remaining grassland region in Bengaluru, the CCF proposal had sought the Board to declare 5,010 acres of the area as Hesaraghatta Grasslands Reserve.
The Board rejected the proposal in response to the request of Yelahanka MLA SR Vishwanath, who was a special invitee at the meeting.
