BENGALURU: Conservationists and Conservationists and experts have penned a letter to the Union Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEFCC), demanding it take a relook at the proposal drawn by the Karnataka tourism department to make Devika Rani and Roerich Estate on Kanakapura Road, on the outskirts of Bengaluru, an eco-tourism destination.
They demanded the ministry to review the project and the departments concerned to obtain prior approval under the Forest Conservation Act, 1980.
The letter sent to the ministry is based on the article – Roerich estate is forest land, eco-tourism tough in jumbo corridor – published in The New Indian Express in its January 10, 2025, edition. The letter, dated January 16, 2025, stated that the property, also called Tataguni Estate, is a dry deciduous forest and is one of the last remaining lung spaces of the fast developing Bengaluru city, which is losing its green cover at an alarming pace.
The estate is spread over nearly 470 acres, of which around 100 acres is notified as a reserve forest and remaining area is notified as a deemed forest by the Karnataka government. Any non-forestry activity on forest land attracts the provisions of Forest Conservation Act, 1980 and diversion of forest land for eco-tourism involving permanent structures is impermissible as per the Sustainable Eco-Tourism in Forest and Wildlife Areas 2021 guidelines issued by the MoEFCC in October, 2021.
“The estate adjoins UM Kaval State Forest and is strategically located between Bannerghatta National Park and Savandurga Forest which is also an elephant corridor. Apart from elephants, the estate area is home to smooth coated otter, deer, rusty spotted cat, muntjac etc. based on a study conducted by Sanjay Gubbi and his team from Nature Conservation Foundation in 2017,” the letter said.