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Threat to Bannerghatta zone
Why it is in news?
- At least 73 eco-sensitive villages, of which 22 are red list villages, have been left out of the buffer zone of the Bannerghatta National Park, which remains ’s last big, urban forest.
- Red list comprises villages that are adjacent to the forest and are highly eco-sensitive.
- While a movement has started in the city, rather successfully, to curb mining projects close to the forest, the pressure on the buffer zone may be a bigger threat to the eco-sensitive national park.
- Using a 2016 Indian Institute of Science report that puts villages in the region in five categories of eco-sensitivity, just 58 of 147 villages in the top two levels of eco-sensitivity had been included in the draft ESZ.
- A further 16 are partially included (that is, only 100 metres into the village), while 73 are excluded.
- The Ministry of Environment and Forests does allow for buffer zone to be reduced to 100 metres in densely populated areas, and this makes sense in the context of the northern edge where Bengaluru lies.
- But, there is no logical reason, apart from vested interests, to exclude villages with low built-up area in the central and southern boundaries of the park.
- The buffer zone will do little in protecting the area, or the elephants that either use it as a refuge or as a transit passage.
- The findings will be presented to the Supreme Court, which is hearing the matter on eco-sensitive zones.
- Protecting this meagre buffer zone may be more than a challenge, finds the study.
- This could lead to an increased man-elephant conflict, as the principle of ESZ to provide a contiguous corridor for wildlife is undermined in Bannerghatta.
Source
The Hindu