Karnataka High Court notice to State on plea to declare Mullayyanagiri Hills areas āconservation reserveā
The High Court of Karnataka on Thursday ordered issue of notice to the State government on a PIL petition seeking direction to the government to
The High Court of Karnataka on Thursday ordered issue of notice to the State government on a PIL petition seeking direction to the government to declare the entire extent of ecologically fragile Mullayyanagiri Hills in Chikkamagaluru district as a āconservation reserveā under Section 36A of the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972. A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Vibhu Bakhru and Justice K.S. Hemalekha passed the order on a petition by Chikkamagaluru-based Bhadra Wildlife Conservation Trust and Wildlife Conservation Action Team.
The petitioners have complained that despite making a draft proposal to declare around 14,183 acres of Mullayyanagiri Hills as āconservation reserveā during 2018, the authorities have failed to issue a final notification in this regard. It has also been complained in the petition that the authorities have failed to issue the final notification despite a direction issued by the
High Court in July 2019 in an earlier round of litigation, in which the petitioners had questioned road widening works from Mullayyanagiri to Seethalayanagiri when the draft proposal for declaration of the areas as āconservation reserveā was under considerationā The petitioners claimed that inaction in not declaring the areas as āconservation reserveā has left the region vulnerable as the
authorities have permitted several construction activities, to facilitate tourism activities, allegedly compounding the ecological damage. The need for urgency for declaring the areas a āconservation reserveā is underscored by a recent report from the Geological Survey of India, which declared the Mullayyanagiri and Chandradrona ranges as danger zones with heightened risk of frequent landslides due to deforestation and unregulated construction.
The BriefWire