Bengaluru: Ahead of the Karnataka State Wildlife Board meeting on November 3, Bengaluru citizens along with urban conservationists have started a signature campaign asking the government to declare Hesaraghatta grasslands spanning on 5,000 acres land as a conservation reserve.
The signature campaign that started on October 28 has garnered thousands of signatures. On Sunday, Tejashwini Ananth Kumar, wife of late Ananth Kumar, former Union minister, also extended her support to the campaign for conservation of Hesarghatta grasslands.
NGO Project Vruksha Foundation president Vijay Nishanth, who started the signature campaign said,“Hesaraghatta, the last remaining grassland of Bengaluru is the water catchment area of the Arkavathy river, housing about 250 species of birds, insects and mammals. There is an attempt by vested interests to incite the locals against the demand of declaring the grasslands as a conservation reserve.”
“The villagers are being fed falsehoods by local politicians like one cannot graze their cattles once the area is declared as a conservation reserve. Some have said that once it would be declared as a reserve forest then wild animals like tigers and elephants would be put there. The sad thing is that not a single MP (member of parliament) from Bengaluru has uttered a word on the issue,” Nishanth added.
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He said that the signatures will be submitted to the principal chief conservator of forest (head of forest force) RK Singh before the wildlife meeting.
Acting on a petition filed by Nishanth the Karnataka High Court in July directed the state government to reconsider its earlier decision of rejecting the proposal of declaring Hesaraghatta grasslands as a conservation reserve in 2021.
