Normal life was crippled during the day-long Wayanad district hartal today to protest the Karnataka High Court ruling, upholding night traffic ban on the Sulthan Battery-Gundelpet section of the national highway linking Bangalore. All modes of public transport kept off roads, while shops and business houses in the district remained closed during the hartal sponsored by the opposition UDF and a union of businesses from Kerala.
No untoward incidents were reported in the district during the protest, superintendent of police G Spurjan Kumar said. The Karnataka High court had recently upheld the ban on night traffic along this route passing through the Bandipore National Park as a wildlife conservation measure.