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Civil society representatives and environmentalists have flagged several issues with recent modifications in the visitors’ area of the Kasu Brahmananda Reddy National Park in a representation addressed to the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, and urged for a scrutiny of the management plan of the Forest department in maintaining the integrity of the wildlife area. In a letter addressed to the Secretary, MoEF&CC, concerned citizens, including avid birders, environmentalists, botanists, wildlife activists, and nature lovers, pointed out that the KBR walkway declared as eco-sensitive zone or buffer zone of the park should have been under the Forest department, but is being maintained by the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC). Free for public use with its open air gyms, landscaped precincts, eateries, and parking section, the sanctity of the eco-sensitive zone is under question, the letter pointed out. About the visitors’ zone, the letter pointed out that the premise of demarcating an area of the park for visitors is to allow them to experience the wilderness, with an underlying non-negotiable clause that the habitat is retained without changes. If changes are necessary, they should be for the benefit of wildlife and not for the convenience of visitors, the letter said. “The visitors’ zone, however, has devolved into an area that caters more to an ever-increasing number of morning and evening walkers, yoga practitioners, laughing club members, and the like, rather than to the original and natural denizens of KBR NP, which comprise a remarkably rich and varied flora and fauna,” the letter said, emphasising that the visitors’ zone is not even buffer zone, but an integral part of the national park. The landscape has been drastically changed due to raised walking tracks bisecting habitats, and water regimes have been modified using physical interventions in various ways. Expressing consternation over the recent modifications such as covering the walking track with moram sand, creating border margins planted with exotic hedges, disrupting the natural ecology by removing boulders and laying lawns, installing gyms and constructing gazebos, planting the fallow/grassy areas of the natural scrub, burying the sheet rock under imported soil, the citizens said such actions were against the spirit of the strict allowances of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972. Birder and naturalist Asheesh Pittie was the main signatory to the letter, with 40 others, copies of which were marked to the National Board of Wild Life, Director General of Forests, Minister Konda Surekha, Chief Secretary, Principal Chief Conservator of Forests, Principal Chief Conservator of Forests, Chief Wildlife Warden and others.
