The Government of Karnataka on Tuesday rejected Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy’s demand to allow movement of vehicles plying through Bandipur Tiger Reserve, linking parts of Kerala.
The ban was imposed in June 2009 by the District Collector of Chamaraj Nagar as a protective measure to prevent road kills. Though the Karnataka Government withdrew the order, the State High Court had stayed the decision in a public interest litigation filed by a lawyer, L. Srinivasa Rao.
Chief Minister of Karnataka Siddaramaiah has now sought time of two months to examine the issue and pointed out that a petition is pending in Supreme Court on the issue and the state cannot violate a Court verdict.
Citing its 2013 ban on tourists taking the Andaman Nicobar Trunk Road that passed through Jarawa tribe habitats, the Supreme Court had said in January, 2015 that it could not be seen to be taking a contradictory stand in this case.
In the Jarawa case, the court had stopped commercial and tourism activities within a five-km radius of the tribal reserve in Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Several enviromentalists and wild life activists have also strongly argued in favour of the ban on vehicle movement in the Bandipur Tiger reserve.
Kerala has consistently maintained that the ban, operative from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m., caused great suffering for passengers travelling by road between Karnataka and Kerala, as they had to wait at the borders the whole night.
Mr. Chandy met Mr. Siddaramaiah in Bengaluru today and submitted a memorandum on the issue.
