Stay on KPCL survey in macaque sanctuary extended

Bengaluru: The stay on the survey and geotechnical investigation works to be carried out by the Karnataka Power Corporation Limited (KPCL) at the Sharavathi Valley Lion-Tailed Macaque sanctuary will continue till October 21. The Advocate General was not present to defend the decision of the State as to why the permission was granted to the KPCL to enter the sanctuary.

The KPCL is carrying out a study to ascertain if the 2000 MW underground pump storage hydro-electric project is feasible.

On October 16, the KPCL lawyer Uday Holla gave an undertaking to the court that there would be no work inside the sanctuary till the matter was settled.

Since Friday there has been no work inside the sanctuary and according to the undertaking given to the court by the KPCL's counsel there will be no work till Wednesday, October 21.

Sreeja Chakraborty is the advocate for the petitioner Edward Santosh Martin, a Ballari-based conservationist who has questioned the legality of carrying out work by the KPCL inside the sanctuary. Martin had filed a writ petition, WP 9762/2020, against the KPCL's ongoing survey and geotechnical investigation for the project.