Resort Dumps Trash In ESZ Of Bandipur Tiger Reserve, Gets Notice
bengaluru : With complete disregard for wildlife, a resort has dumped discarded mattresses, stale food stuffed in plastic sheets and plastic cups, among others, at Karemala village in Chamarajanagar’s Gundlupet Taluk, just 500 meters outside the Gopalaswamy Betta Range boundary of Bandipur Tiger Reserve. However, the resort’s action was caught on camera by a villager of Karemala, forcing forest officials to take action against the resort.
When it was brought to the attention of the officers, a report was made to the facility about this issue. Garbage dumping was on revenue land but fell under environmentally sensitive zone.
A wildlife activist observed: “Such actions could escalate human-animal conflict because food thrown by tourists, whether vegetarian or not, could drive wild animals out of the Reserve and bring them closer to people in surrounding villages.”
It may be recalled that jungle safaris were stopped in Bandipur and Nagarahole Tiger Reserves in Karnataka in 2025 after stray tigers injured 3 villagers around the Bandipur Tiger Reserve in Hediyala subdivision. However, jungle safaris resumed about two weeks ago after being stopped on November 7 last year.
In the garbage dumping incident, a farmer Bomma saw a tractor dumping garbage on the forest border of a resort and immediately captured the garbage dumping on his mobile phone before alerting the forest officials.
Forest officials discovered garbage near the Reserve boundary after spot inspection and GS Betta Range Forest Officer Mallesh told Deccan Chronicle on Sunday, “I came across garbage but did not scan every single thing thrown at the site,” and the officer ruled out whether there were any liquor bottles thrown at the site.
“I have lodged a notice with the Country Club, a resort, regarding littering in an eco-sensitive area and appropriate action such as imposition of fines will be initiated based on the disclosure,” the RFO said.
To a question on whether dumping of non-veg/non-vegetarian holiday garbage containing stale food should not attract wild animals such as wild boars, resulting in predators coming out of the forest and leading to human-animal conflicts, Mallesh said, “This is the first instance of littering in the eco-sensitive area of the Reserve in about a decade.”
Honnur Prakash, a farmer leader who has opposed the operation of resorts and jungle safaris in Bandipur and Nagarahole, demanded closure of the faulty facility and questioned the reasoning of Bandipur forest officials: “When plastic bottles are seized from tourism, why should we go easy on the faulty facility for littering in the ESZ of Bandipur?”
