Bangalore: The Central Reserve Police Force is in the process of vacating the 553 acres that it had occupied in the reserve forest adjoining Bannerghatta National Park. On September 12, 2001, the Karnataka High Court, in a landmark judgement had stopped the CRPF from setting up a firing range inside the reserve forest, based on a PIL filed by WTI.Though the land is still in possession of CRPF, no firing practice has been going on at the site since the judgement was passed. Some temporary establishments still existing, but are being moved out, according to Mr. S.K. Chakraborti. The Karnataka Government will include the 553 acres that were occupied by CRPF in the third notification of the national park area, he said. “The government will first issue the notification to acquire the land and declare it as a reserve forest. Once it is under our jurisdiction, we will add it to the Bannerghatta National Park territory, after proper notification,” he explains.

Commenting on this, Advocate for WTI Mr. Sudhir Mishra said “This decision of the Karnataka High Court is a milestone and will help in solving many crucial issues that have been a threat to wildlife and their habitat across the country. The distinction between this judgement and other similar orders is that for the first time an order of the court had been successfully complied by the state government within a specified timeframe.”

The Hon’ble High Court of Karnataka in its preliminary observation in March 2001 had issued notice to the state government and to the CRPF to explain the reasons for creating a firing range in the areas near the Bannerghatta National Park. During the arguments before the High Court, WTI advocates Fox Mandal & Associates argued that the above land was allotted to CRPF in violation of Wildlife Protection Act (1972) and Forest Conservation Act (1980).

It was a matter of great satisfaction for WTI when the writ petition was admitted by the High Court on 12th September 2001. The Hon’ble Division Bench court comprising of Hon’ble Chief Justice, Mr. N.K. Jain and Hon’ble Justice Mr. R. Gururajan allowed the writ petition with explicit directions to the state government to allot an alternative site in a safe zone, within a period of six months, and not to carry out any firing activity in the area.

This petition was filed in January 2001 by the Wildlife Trust of India under its Rapid Action Project (RAP) and was one of its first writ petitions (PIL). The petition stated that the proposed firing range posed a serious threat to the safety and well being of wildlife flora and fauna in the area. It also said that “With the setting up of the firing range, there is an imminent danger to the elephant corridor which passes through the CRPF firing range and the likelihood of poisoning of water sources in the Bannerghatta National Park area due to flying of bullets and mortars.”