BANGALORE: The High Court on Monday directed the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) to stop the construction of the controversial Link Road (approximately 4 km long) through the campus of the Gandhi Krishi Vignana Kendra (GKVK) of the University of Agricultural Sciences (UAS). The Division Bench comprising Chief Justice J S Khehar and Justice H G Ramesh directed the BBMP to stop laying the road and directed the State Government to set up a committee involving the Chief Secretary, Environment Secretary, representatives of the university, BBMP and Indian Institute of Science (IISc) to resolve the controversy.The bench took note of the fact that the government had declared the university campus as a Heritage Site under the Biological Diversity Act on September 2, 2010. “The information narrated in the notification showed that the GKVK campus is one of the greenest areas in Bangalore having a rich biodiversity of 530 species of plants, 165 species of birds, 13 species of mammals and 10 species of reptiles,” the bench said clearly, endorsing the critical importance for careful, scientific and comprehensive assessment of implications of building roads in ecologically sensitive areas.A PIL was filed by seven former vice-chancellors of the university led by D Dwarakanath and others stating that the Standing Committee on Major Works of the BBMP had recommended the cancellation of the proposed link road and return of the land to the university of agriculture. They contended that the committee, in its report, had observed that the link road project was ill conceived, unnecessary and unscientific and had accordingly recommended to cancel the project and to return to the university, the 24 acres of land taken for the construction of the link road. The petitioners’ submissions that the project was conceived and implemented in gross violation of the Forest Conservation Act, Karnataka Town and Country Planning Act and Karnataka Preservation of Trees Act has been highlighted.
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