Bangalore University to lose its lung space

Bengaluru: The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has been allotted 15 acre of the biodiversity park area inside the Bangalore University campus to build a centre.

The move to allot biodiversity park land to CBSE will be a brutal blow to the lung space. The park is home to more than 600 species of endangered special trees, 148 species of butterflies and 149 species of birds . Hundreds of peacocks, black-naped hare abound this biodiverse landscape.

According to sources, vice-chancellor of Bangalore University Venugopal K R gave a green signal for the construction of the project inside the biodiversity park. The CBSE south centre could have been built elsewhere, but it has sought an area close to the metro station for convenience.

Professor T J Renuka Prasad, former coordinator of the biodiversity park told The Hans India that the marking for jungle clearance had started in the mini forest of Biopark. "The portion where the work has already started is the first patch of the biodiversity park that we developed in 2001. In the first phase we planted around 600 species including the in situ species of the area," he said.

"The university campus is one of the city's last remaining landscape.In fact, it is the only bio-diverse rich university in India. We have created Bangalore's largest carbon sink over 25 years of hard work. Neither the state government nor the university has spent a rupee on it. People have contributed and participated in planting. We cannot lose this lung space," said former forest secretary, Yellappa Reddy who helped in the construction of the park two decades ago. Prasad stated that the entire campus of Bangalore University was declared as biodiversity park by the Karnataka government in 2017.

"Keeping this in mind, 14 additional bio-park patches have been developed. There are more than 1,100 species with rare, endangered and threatened species. Professors, staff and students are keen that the biodiversity rich park be saved," Prasad added. Environmentalist Joseph Hoover said "even educational agencies - universities- boards haven't understood the gravity of extreme climate events"

"Instead educating people over the critical need for protecting our environment, these educationists are destroying it.It has taken 20 years to develop this biodiversity park, but in barely two days a JCB has razed part of it," he said.