Tribals living in the Rajiv Gandhi National park, a wildlife sanctuary at Nagarhole, won a significant battle for their land when the Karnataka High court struck down an agreement between the Taj Group of Hotels and the state government to set up a three-star resort in the middle of the sanctuary under the garb of eco-tourism.
Justice G C Bharuka yesterday delivered an order staying further construction of a jungle resort by the Gateway Hotels & Getaway Resorts Ltd, a subsidiary of the Taj Group of Hotels at the Nagarhole wildlife sanctuary park.
Rejecting the contentions put forward by the Taj Group of Hotels, Justice Bharuka ordered that construction on the project should cease immediately.
Further, he imposed a compensation fee of Rs 10,000 on the Taj Group to be paid to the petitioners.
According to the writ petition, the petitioners led by the Nagarhole Budakattu Hakku Sthapana Samithi (the Nagarhole Adivasi Rights Restoration Forum), had moved the court to nullify the 18-year lease deed entered into between the Taj Group of Hotels and the state government and make it inoperative, void and illegal.
They wanted the court to stop the respondents from taking up a project for any non forest purpose within the park at Nagarhole and to restore the livelihood of the displaced tribals. Justice Bharuka passed the order on a writ petition, filed by these NGO groups working for the rights of tribals, on November 15, last year.
The main respondents in the case were the Department of Forest, Ecology and Environment, the Forest Department and the Taj Group of hotels.
Meanwhile a Taj group of Hotels spokesperson today defended their project and said their lawyers would be examining the recent order to decide their next move.
The judge had questioned the legal validity of providing permission for the wildlife resort without obtaining central government permission. If we get the central government clearance we then need to know where we stand. We are however not happy with the judgement since we have already invested around Rs 3 crore in this project. We are entirely in the right and not violated any law, he said.
Since August, the adivasis and the tribal rights action groups at Nagarhole have been fighting against this three star Taj Resort coming up inside the sanctuary. Their contention was that the Nagarhole National park boasting of rich diverse flora, fauna and wildlife and the home of tribal communities such as the jenukurubas, bettakurubas, Yeravas and the Paniyars would be threatened by the encroachments.
G Parmeshwarappa, former chief conservator of forests in the Karnataka government yesterday met mediapersons in an unprecendented fashion to explain the setting up of a Taj resort in the area.
He pointed out that the Taj group had bagged a government tender to renovate an old government lodge on the boundary of the park to encourage wildlife tourism. He also mentioned the Rajiv Gandhi national park was also one of the projects to be developed by the World Bank under the Global Ecology Development Fund.
The NGOs in the area were also resisting this world bank project which would again bypass the tribals and their traditions untouched by civilisation.
