Night drives through Bandipur forest area in Karnataka banned

The Karnataka high court on Tuesday banned vehicles from entering the Bandipur forest area in the nights with immediate effect.

The high court order comes in the wake of a series of deaths of wild animals in the Bandipur forest area due to vehicle movement on national highway 212, which cuts through the Bandipur forest.
The high court bench comprising of justices V Gopala Gowda and BS Patil directed the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) to implement the ban strictly.

The court directed the state government to repair alternate routes to the highway within six months to enable the heavy traffic moving on those routes instead.

Chief conservator of forests BJ Hosmatt and wildlife board member Sanjay Gubbi had last month highlighted before the court the fragile ecosystem in Bandipur, and the threat to wildlife from the heavy vehicular traffic.