The Nationwide Inexperienced Tribunal (NGT) has stepped in to scrutinise the Karnataka Authorities’s current transfer to scale back the buffer zones round lakes and tanks, taking suo motu cognisance of a media report dated July 28 highlighting the Cupboard’s approval of revised norms for lake conservation.
In notices issued on August 8, a bench of Justices Prakash Srivastava and A Senthil Vel sought responses from the setting division and made the Karnataka Lake Conservation and Improvement Authority, the Karnataka State Air pollution Management Board, the Bangalore Improvement Authority, and the Central Air pollution Management Board events to the case.
The matter, transferred to the Southern Zonal Bench, can be heard subsequent on September 26.
The tribunal’s intervention comes towards the backdrop of the passage of the Karnataka Tank Conservation and Improvement Authority (Modification) Invoice 2025, which seeks to amend the Karnataka Tank Conservation and Improvement Authority Act 2014.
The Invoice, which was handed within the Meeting and the Legislative Council lately, introduces area-wise buffer zones for tanks and lakes, successfully shifting away from the sooner uniform restrictions. In keeping with the brand new desk of norms, the buffer zone will now fluctuate with the dimensions of the waterbody—starting from 0 m for very small tanks (as much as 0.05 acre) to 30 m for big lakes of greater than 100 acres. Mid-sized tanks could have proportional buffer limits, resembling 3 m for tanks between 0.05 and 1 acre, 6 m for these between 1 and 10 acres, 12 m for tanks of 10–25 acres, and 24 m for these between 25 and 100 acres.
This area-based categorisation marks a major departure from the broader protecting zones beneficial in earlier pointers, which many conservationists had argued have been important for sustaining the ecological well being of lakes and their catchments.
Alongside buffer reclassification, the Invoice introduces provisions to allow sure public utility works inside tank areas and their buffer zones. These embrace roads, bridges, water provide strains, sewage remedy vegetation, underground drainage programs, pump homes, electrical infrastructure, and allied works. Such permissions can be conditional on making certain that the tank’s unique capability shouldn’t be decreased and that there isn’t a obstruction to the pure influx or outflow of water.
Additional, the Invoice permits industrial, leisure, and business actions inside these zones, once more with prior approval from the authority. Nevertheless, it clarifies that these permissions are topic to compliance with current siting pointers and air pollution management norms beneath the Water (Prevention and Management of Air pollution) Guidelines 1976. Healthcare institutions and new infrastructure initiatives, nevertheless, are excluded from these relaxations.
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The Authorities has justified the amendments by citing the suggestions of a technical committee headed by the chief secretary. The committee had argued for extra sensible, size-based norms, contending {that a} blanket buffer requirement was neither possible in city areas nor needed for small waterbodies. The Invoice’s assertion of objects and causes notes that the purpose is to facilitate growth whereas nonetheless making certain water conservation.
Residents petition Governor Thaawarchand Gehlot
In the meantime, a residents’ delegation beneath the banner of Bengaluru City Corridor met Governor Thaawarchand Gehlot on Monday and submitted a memorandum opposing the Invoice. The group urged him to return the Invoice for reconsideration, arguing that it weakens lake safety norms and violates constitutional and environmental safeguards.
The memorandum highlighted that the Invoice reduces lake buffer zones to a most of 30 m—far beneath what consultants suggest. Hydrology and setting specialists, at a public session held by Bengaluru City Corridor on August 9, advocated 100–300 m buffer zones to safeguard ecosystem integrity, biodiversity, flood management, and water high quality. They warned that the modification would pave the way in which for reckless actual property growth, endanger water safety, and undermine the ecological steadiness of city and rural lakes. The delegation alleged that the Invoice was handed with out sufficient public or skilled session, amounting to a violation of constitutional provisions associated to environmental safety.
The delegation to the governor included actor-director Prakash Belawadi, Sandeep Anirudhan (convenor, Residents’ Agenda for Bengaluru), Kathyayini Chamaraj (govt trustee, Civic Bangalore), Dattatraya Devare (trustee, Bangalore Atmosphere Belief), and Rajkumar Dugar (Residents for Residents).