The Government of India has banned all forms of commercial activity in notified area around the park, calls it Eco Sensitive Zone and has put an end to the booming real estate and other allied commercial activities varying from 100 metres to 4.5 km from the perimeter of the Bannerghatta National Park (BNP) by declaring it an Eco Sensitive Zone (ESZ).
The Ministry of Environment and Forest has issued a Notification vide 125.S.O. 2116(E) [15.06.2016] Draft Notification declaring Eco Sensitive Zone around Bannerghatta National Park, and According to the notification, 260.51 Sq Km of forest around the boundary of the BNP has been declared as ‘ecologically sensitive zone’.
The notification directs the Karnataka state government to ban operations of stone quarries, saw mill industries and regulate air and noise pollution, besides addressing land use pattern and tourism activities in the notified area.
Under the notification No new commercial construction of any kind shall be permitted within 1 km of the boundary of BNP.
Local people shall be permitted to undertake construction in their land,” the notification revealed. The MoEF notification said the BNP is a “Terminal point on the northern side of ‘Mysuru Elephant Reserve’ that inhabitates the large mammal – Asian elephants – that migrate from adjacent Thali Reserve in TN.
The BNP has breeding population of elephants and supports leopard, wild dog, gaur, sambhar, chital, sloth bear, slender loris, oriental white humped vulture, long-billed vulture, yellow-throated bulbul and other important wildlife. The park is also an important watershed area for the Arkavathi, Suvarnamukhi, Muth-yalamadavu hole, Rayathamala hole, Hebbal-lahalla and Anthar-agange that joins the river Cauvery.”
BANNED
New and existing quarries, mines, crushing units are prohibited except for the domestic needs of local residents. Saw mills, industries, thermal and hydro-electric projects, commercial use of firewood and discharge of untreated effluents into the designated area are all prohibited.