Karnataka: PIL against illegal road widening projects in Belagavi district

BENGALURU: The Karnataka high court has issued a notice to the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) in response to a PIL seeking a direction to halt all illegal road widening projects in Belagavi district.
A division bench comprising acting Chief Justice L Narayana Swamy and Justice PS Dinesh Kumar has also sought response from Ministry Forest and Ecology and Principal Chief Conservator of Forests, Karnataka.
Citing media reports regarding felling of about of 22,000 trees to widen NH-4A connecting in Khanapura-Londa, petitioners -actor and environmentalist Suresh Heblikar and two others have sought for court’s intervention in the matter contending that the 14 km stretch in question is a thick forest and comes under Dandeli elephant reserve and home to elephants, tigers, leopards, black panthers and king cobras etc.
They have also sought for a direction the NHAI to maintain 50 Kmph speed limit with intermittent speed breakers inside all wildlife corridors and forest areas (PAs and Territorial divisions) to avoid death due to road kills. In addition, they have sought for a direction to the Forest Department to ban night traffic through all Elephant reserves as per directions of NBWL standing committee.