Karnataka High Court directs inclusion of left-out 55 sq. km reserve forest area to Kappatagudda Wildlife Sanctuary

The High Court of Karnataka has directed the State government to issue a further notification to include the left-out areas of the Kappatagudda reserve forest as part of the Kappatagudda Wildlife Sanctuary in Gadag district, as per the resolution passed at the 11th meeting of the Karnataka State Wildlife Board (KSWB) in January 2019.

A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Vibhu Bakhru and Justice C.M. Poonacha issued the direction after noticing that only 244.15 sq. km area was declared as a wildlife sanctuary in the May 16, 2019, notification, even though the KSWB had on January 9, 2019, unanimously resolved to declare the entire 300 sq. km of Kappatagudda reserve forest as wildlife sanctuary.

Petition dismissed

The Bench issued the directions while dismissing petitions filed by Shivaganga Stone Crushing Industries and other operators of stone-crushing units on patta lands in the immediate vicinity of the fourth block of the Kappatagudda reserved forest, challenging the May 16, 2019, notification.

The petitioners had contended that their business was affected due to the declaration of 244.15 sq. km of areas as a sanctuary, as their land comes under the eco-sensitive zone around the Kappatagudda Wildlife Sanctuary. They had sought a direction from the government to confine the boundary of the Kappatagudda Wildlife Sanctuary to only 178 sq. km, as was initially proposed in 2017. The petitioners had claimed an increase in the sanctuary area beyond 178 sq. km was without the approval of the National Board of Wildlife.

‘To benefit few’

As the Bench found the anomaly in the area of the sanctuary, as was approved by the Board and the notification on declaration of sanctuary, the petitioners had claimed that the reduced area was declared as a sanctuary to benefit a few units, which are owned by influential persons.

In response to the court’s query on why the area was reduced, the government counsel had told the Bench that no document is available regarding any decision to reduce the area of the sanctuary, while pointing out that there was an error in recording the area of Kappatagudda reserve forest as 300 sq. km when actual area is 288 sq. km.

Reducing the area of the sanctuary is ex facie arbitrary as it was contrary to the decision of the Board meeting chaired by the Chief Minister, and acted upon by the State government, the Bench said while directing the government to issue a notification to add the left-out area of 55 sq. km to the sanctuary.

Govt.’s view on exclusion

However, the Bench clarified that if the government is of the view that it is necessary or expedient to exclude a part of the area from the boundaries of the sanctuary, then this order would not preclude the government to take a decision on altering the boundaries of the sanctuary (which includes the left-out portions of the reserve forest), in accordance with the law.