The Supreme Court appointed Central Empowered Committee’s members are reportedly in the city to verify facts in view of the allegations about violation of the Eco Sensitive Zone (ESZ) of the Kasu Brahmananda Reddy National Park by the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation for H-CITI project.
The Committee reportedly inspected the National Park and its surroundings, and the ongoing work for construction of flyovers and underpasses on the park’s peripheries on Friday, before meeting the GHMC officials, including Commissioner R.V. Karnan and Chief Engineer Sahadev Ratnakar. They also reportedly met Forest Department officials to understand the issues around the ESZ.
The contentions by city-based environmentalists about the manner in which ESZ was fixed, have reached the Supreme Court after GHMC had started the work for the project and felled a large number of trees on the road median. The apex court had issued a stay on tree felling within the ESZ, while not stalling the work for the project.
The current inspections have been undertaken by the CEC reportedly after they received an alert about felling of trees close to the park while the stay was in effect. Member of the Committee Anjan Kumar Mohanty is learnt to have invited the complainants for a meeting on Monday for hearing their version.
Three persons Kaajal Maheshwari, Jasveen Jairath and Sagar Dhara challenged the ESZ approved by the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change, for the KBR National Park in October, 2020. They contend that despite the recommendation by the expert committee under MoEF, no public hearing was conducted by the department before final notification was issued.
Initially they approached the High Court against the ESZ notification, but when the government pushed forth with the H-CITI project before the issues was settled, they approached the Supreme Court for relief.
Published – July 25, 2026 08:39 pm IST
