‘Lalbagh Ulisi’: Citizens turn out in 3 force to oppose tunnel road project

Bengalureans turned up in large num bers at Lalbagh on Sunday morning for a ‘Walk to Save Lalbagh’, protesting the proposed tunnel road project and the Karnataka Government Parks (Preservation) Act, 1975. The amendment allows up to 5% of park and garden land to be used for infrastructure and utility projects, sparking concerns among environmentalists and citizens over the shrinking of Bengaluru’s green spaces, particularly its key green lungs — Lalbagh and Cubbon Park. While environmentalists, activists and civil society groups had been gathering at Lalbagh over the issue in recent days, Sunday’s protest witnessed a significantly larger turnout, with concerned citizens joining the campaign to protect the botanical garden’s greenery and its historic 3.4-billion-year-old Peninsular Gneiss from developmental projects.

The walk was led by Yellappa Reddy, IFS (Retd.), Chief Advisor to the Lalbagh and Cubbon Park Expert Committee, and Bengaluru South Member of Parliament Tejasvi Surya. “If they do not drop the tunnel road project, this protest will only gain bigger momentum. It is the duty of the government to protect public spaces and parks. They cannot be the ones encroaching on, attacking and killing our green spaces,” said Tejasvi Surya, describing the mobilisation as “just a trailer”. He said Lalbagh, Cubbon Park and several other parks and green spaces are among Bengaluru’s remaining heritage spaces.

“The least the government should do is not destroy them. Expecting them to protect them seems too far-fetched today,” he said, calling for development that is “more scientific and sustainable”.“We want development that brings the people of the city along with confidence and consensus, rather than im posing projects on them simply because they serve the interests of a particular party or contractor,” he said. He further sarcastically not ed that if monetary profit is the primary motivation of the government behind development projects such as the tunnel road, he and members of the public could instead organise fundraisers to raise the neces sary funds.

As participants marched to wards the ancient rock forma tion inside Lalbagh, they raised slogans of “Lalbagh Ulisi” (Save Lalbagh). Environmentalist and mobility crusader Vinod Jacob said citizens’ pressure would be crucial in pushing the government to reconsider the amendment. “We had met the Governor on the rock trying to save it,” he said. recently through our coalition and asked him to stop the amendment. Since the Bill has been passed in the House, it needs to be amended and can only be stopped by the government,” Jacob said. He attributed the large support to the coming together of Lalbagh and Cubbon Park walkers’ associations, environmentalists, naturalists and several concerned citizens.

He said the initial group protesting the issue decided to open the campaign to everyone willing to support it, as environmental concerns often tend to remain apolitical and fail to draw wider public participation. Documentary filmmaker Ganesh Shankaraj said the protest was particularly significant for him as he had previously made films on Lalbagh and its ancient rock. “The irony is that I have made a lot of films on Lalbagh and a film separately on the rock, and today I am standing He urged people, including members of the creative fraternity, to come together irrespective of political differences. “We have to come out together in one voice and protect nature’s gift to us.

What is for society is for the people; it is not meant for political or political-economic interests,” he said, calling for citizens to ensure that “even an inch” of Lalbagh land is not given up. Plog Raj (Nagaraj) of The Indian Ploggers Army also welcomed the huge public turnout. Having participated in Lalbagh clean-up drives, he said it was encouraging to see citizens unite to protect the park. “Lalbagh is close to our hearts, and so it feels good to see so many citizens joining together for a common objec tive. It is rightly said by many that this is beyond politics, rather something to do with Mother Nature,” he said.