Bengaluru, 27 August

Around 100 citizens in Bengaluru protested on top of the iconic rock in Lalbagh against the Karnataka government’s Parks Amendment bill that would allow up to 5 per cent of any park or garden be used for infrastructure and utility projects. 

Organised by Greenpeace India and the Bengaluru Sustainability Forum, protesters carried banners reading, “Not 5 per cent. Not 1 inch. Leave our parks alone”, and “Garden City needs its gardens”, and joined hands to form a human chain.

The protests come after the State Assembly passed the Karnataka Government Parks (Preservation) Amendment Bill, 2026, which allows up to 5 percent of the total area of a park or garden to be alienated for specified public infrastructure and utility projects undertaken by government departments, statutory authorities, government companies or local bodies.

The timing of the Amendment has also raised concerns that the Congress government is trying to overcome legal hurdles to build the proposed tunnel road, seen Chief Minister DK Shivakumar’s pet project. 

The proposed 17.5km Hebbal–Silk Board tunnel road will cut directly under Lalbagh. BJP MP Tejasvi Surya, along with others, have challenged the tunnel road project on environmental grounds in the Karnataka High Court. One of the core tenets of Surya’s argument rests on the Karnataka Government Parks (Preservation) Bill, 1975. 

Even before the Amendment was passed, citizens have been voicing concerns that the tunnel road will irreversibly damage the a 3.4-billion-year-old Peninsular Gneiss rock, as well as affect the sensitive ecosystem in Lalbagh and damage its groundwater supplies. On several occasions, they have protested at the park, one of Bengaluru’s few parks and a critical green-lung. 

On Thursday, organisers of the protest said that at least 200 citizens and 40 groups had endorsed a letter that will be sent to Shivakumar opposing the Amendment and the tunnel road. 

They warned that today the government might seek 5 per cent of a park’s land. But tomorrow it could be 10 per cent.

Shivakumar, for his part, has said that “some corner” in Lalbagh “could be used for machinery for about six months to one year”, while defending the Amendment.