The outer walkway has been proposed as the eco-sensitive zone for the KBR National Park.

The brouhaha raised over GHMC’s proposal to fell trees of KBR National Park for the Telangana State Government’s Strategic Road Development Plan (SRDP) could have actually missed the point.

The part of the walkway which is slated for denuding, in fact, does not fall under KBR National Park, vouch officials from the Forest Department.

Divisional Forest Officer responsible for KBR Park, V.Venkateshwar Rao, informed that the outer walkway around the park comes under the purview of the HMDA, and not the Forest department.

GHMC is required under the WALTA Act to pay the user agency (here, HMDA) the sum for growing and maintenance of twice the number of trees or plants being uprooted, Mr. Rao said.

However, senior forest officials under the condition of anonymity, say that the State government nevertheless ought to take permission from the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF), as the outer walkway has been proposed as the eco-sensitive zone for the KBR National Park.

The proposals for identification of eco-sensitive zones for all national parks and sanctuaries were invited by the Centre from various States, and accordingly, the proposals for 27 parks and sanctuaries in the undivided State were sent in January 2014. Of them, three national parks and nine sanctuaries fall under Telangana.

“The eco-sensitive zones were proposed as buffer area around the forests, to facilitate the spread of burgeoning wildlife.

Depending on the availability of free space in each case, we had sent proposals for varying extents of eco-sensitive zones,” shared the official. The zone extended to as far as 10 kilometres at times, with wide variations from each point of the circumference of the same forest.

However, by its highly urbanised location, KBR Park did not allow for much scope, leaving the department no choice but to propose the short distance between sanctuary boundary and the road outside, including the outer walkway, as eco-sensitive zone. The distance thereof would not exceed 25 to 30 metres at any point.

“Now, it is up to the Centre to scrutinise the proposal. Even for felling trees in this zone, the Centre needs to be approached,” said the official.