Are trees being felled within Lalbagh for tunnel road project, Karnataka High Court asks State government

The Karnataka High Court on Saturday directed the State government to inform by October 28 on whether there are plans to cut trees inside the famous Lalbagh Botanical Garden for the proposed tunnel road project.

A division bench comprising Chief Justice Vibhu Bakhru and Justice C.M. Poonacha posed this question to the Government counsel during the hearing on two PIL petitions that challenged the tunnel road project after it was pointed out to the bench that there is an imminent threat of trees being felled felling inside Lalbagh as a particular area has already been cordoned off.

Demarcated area

Appearing for actor-director Prakash Belawadi, who is one of the petitioners, Lok Sabha member and advocate Tejasvi Surya pointed out that around 6.5 acres in Lalbagh have been demarcated and ingress and egress of the public to this area have been stopped. He also pointed out that the tunnel road would pass under Lalbagh, which has a 3,000 million-year-old Peninsular Gneiss that has been declared as a National Geological Monument by the Geological Survey of India.

Though the bench earlier indicated that it can pass an interim order not to cut trees if there are plans to fell trees in Lalbagh for the project prior to the next date of hearing on the petitions, it refrained from passing any such order by accepting assurance from the government advocate that the information on whether trees would be felled or nor would be provided by October 27 or 28.

In his petition, Mr. Belawadi has contended that the project has been taken up in violation of the mandatory provisions of the Bengaluru Metropolitan Land Transport Authority (BMLTA) Act, 2022, Karnataka Parks (Preservation) Act, 1975, constitutional provisions, and other environmental laws. The bench ordered the issuance of a notice to the government with regard to this petition.

Urgent intervention

On the other petition, filed by Adikesavalu Ravindra and two others, the court on September 25 had ordered the issuance of a notice to the government and adjourned hearing till December 9. However, the advocates appearing on behalf of both the petitions, on Saturday sought urgent intervention from the court on the issue of utilisation of Lalbagh land as the authorities recently demarcated the area for the tunnel project.

The project proposes construction of tunnel roads from Hebbal to Central Silk Board junction, with eight entry and eight exit points, under Build-Own-Operate-Transfer mode.