Daijiworld Media Network - Bengaluru (SP)

Bengaluru, Jan 19: The southern zone bench of National Green Tribunal at Chennai, on Monday January 18, took up an application filed against Karnataka Neeravari Nigam Ltd (KNNL), alleging that the Nigam has violated rules under Forest Act when executing works entrusted to it. The bench ordered issuance of notice to the chairman of KNNL, Karnataka chief minister, and board of directors of KNNL.

Environmentalist, K N Somashekhar, had moved an application before the bench, alleging that in a number of projects out of 173 given to it, KNNL had destroyed environment by not following the rules and regulations concerning forest conservation. Somashekhar had requested the bench to recover cost of thousands of acres of forest which was destroyed by it from KNNL without any authorization.

"The additional principal chief conservator of forests of Karnataka had written to the government, drawing its attention to reckless destruction of forest in violation of Forest Act by KNNL. But the government had not responded to this report," Somashekhar said in his application.

The bench, which took up the application for hearing, ordered issuance of notices to KNNL chairman, chief minister, and board of directors of KNNL, seeking their response to this application. The case now stands posted to February 11 for hearing.

It may be noted that KNNL, which is already facing allegations of a number of violations in earlier projects, has again taken up execution of Yettinahole project in a hurried manner.