Bengaluru's civil society’s efforts to protect the city’s two lungs—Lalbagh and Cubbon Park, spread over 200 acres each—appear to be undermined with the passing of the Karnataka Government Parks (Preservation) Amendment Bill. It empowers the government to ‘alienate’ 5 percent of land in public parks for infrastructure projects in ‘public interest’, allowing the authorities to lease, sell, gift, exchange, mortgage or transfer the carved out land, though only to government departments and statutory bodies. The Bill was passed without debate while the opposition was busy creating a ruckus for the resignation of minister B Nagendra over a scam; the BJP and JDS are now denouncing it as serving the Congress government’s real estate interests. There was no such provision under the Karnataka Parks, Playfields and Open Spaces (Preservation and Regulation) Act, 1985.
The amendment’s timing raises questions. It could pave the way for takeover of land in Lalbagh—six acres temporarily and one acre permanently—for Chief Minister D K Shivakumar’s pet tunnel project. The 17-km tunnel connecting Hebbal in north Bengaluru to Silk Board in the south will cut through Lalbagh. This has raised the hackles of ecologists, who have been demanding an environmental impact study before the project is finalised. Their main concern is how tunnelling will impact Lalbagh rock, a 3.4-billion-year-old peninsular gneiss formation that has been declared a National Geological Monument, apart from the loss of tree cover. The government claims the road will bypass the rock.
The project has been challenged in the Karnataka High Court for violating the Government Parks (Preservation) Act; the amendment circumvents any debate in court. While checks are in place by way of assessments by official committees, the change opens up space for misuse. It is also risking parks across the state and opening the gates for further loss of green cover—the state capital’s cover has plunged from 70 percent in the 1970s to 3 percent.
For the government, 5 percent of Cubbon Park or Lalbagh would mean 10 acres at its disposal. It’s earlier attempt to put up a 10-storey structure in Cubbon Park was averted by alert citizens. Viewed with other policy amendments—changes in lake buffers, zonal regulations, floor-area ratio, building bylaws and regularisation of building violations—it will harm climate in the IT Capital.
