Bandipur's Bandobast

In men versus wild, politics over a nightly ban on traffic along a highway through a national park

- Ajay Sukumaran

A ban on night-time traffic has been in force for ten years in Bandipur National Park through whose critical tiger habitat two national highways pass—it has been contested, of course, all these years through litigation. Now, however, bordering Wayanad has risen in protest. Demonstrations and indefinite fasts have marked the past couple of weeks in the hilly Kerala district into which Rahul Gandhi, as its MP, has waded in.

The protests in Wayanad cut across ruling and opposition party lines and have taken on an emotive color with wide coverage in Kerala’s media outlets. A hunger strike, which began on Sep­tember 25, was called off last weekend after the state government promised the protestors of all support to resolve the issue. But the matter is being heard in the Supreme Court since 2010 and the Kerala government a party to the litiga­tion all along.

Locals groups want the night ban on National Highway 766 lifted, citing hard­ ships to livelihood such as transporting vegetables and essentials between Sulthan Bathery and Mysore. “There are several issues here and the aim of the demonstrations is to draw national atten­tion to them,” I.C. Balakrishnan, Sulthan Bathery MLA, tells Outlook. The protests happened after the top court’s August 7 directive staying the night ban. The court asked the environment ministry to come up with suggestions as to how the alterna­tive route can be upgraded and NH 766 may then, in the long run, be closed down.

“Closing the road entirely will lead to a difficult situation. We need to consider ideas like building flyovers and there’s a need for talks between Kerala and Karnataka governments,” says Bala kris­hnan. There have been discussions over the years and Karnataka has been firm on the traffic restrictions.