Friday, January 08, 2010

• The road will lead to ecological disaster
• The botanical garden has 469 plant species

Bangalore: The Karnataka High Court on Thursday reserved for orders a public interest litigation (PIL) against the decision of the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) to build a road cutting across the GKVK campus of the University of Agricultural Sciences (UAS).

A Division Bench comprising Justice Manjula Chellur and Justice A.N. Venugopala Gowda was hearing petitions by several former Vice-Chancellors of the UAS. The petitioners, R. Dwarkinath, G.K. Veeresh, K.V. Devaraj, A.M. Krishnappa, M.N. Shelavantar, N.G. Perur and B. Bisalaiah termed the decision of BBMP to bisect the GKVK campus and build the road as illogical.

They said the BBMP had unilaterally decided to link Yeshwanthpur-Yelehanka and join Bellary Road by laying a road across the GKVK campus. The road, they said, would lead to great ecological disaster. The UAS, they said, was the third best institution of its kind in the country and was spread over 1,381 acres of land, most of which was classified as forest land.

The UAS, they said, had come up with 28 varieties of paddy, 14 in ragi, seven in sugarcane, six in cowpea, five in soybean, three in sunflower, two each in dolichos, sesamum and sweet potato and 35 different breeds of sheep.

The campus is home to 165 species of birds, 10 species of reptiles, 99 species of butterflies and 13 species of mammals. In addition, there are hundreds of species of insects. The diversity of flora includes 530 plant species, 46 species of medicinal plants, 24 species having high medicinal value and six rare plants. There is a world class germplasm collection on the premises. The botanical garden is one of its kind and it has 469 plant species. The UAS, the petitioners said, had taken extraordinary precaution to protect the rich biodiversity of flora and fauna. In 2004, it had spent Rs. 3.5 crore on fencing its 14-km campus by putting up an eight-foot compound wall.