The Karnataka high Court on Wednesday ordered status quo on the unveiling of Adiyogi statue and the opening of Isha Yoga Centre at the foothill of the Nandi Hills near Bengaluru. Issuing notices to the state, the yoga centre and 14 other respondents, the court issued interim stay order.
Sadhguru's Isha Foundation was scheduled to inaugurate the statue on January 15.
A Public Interest Litigation was filed in the court by Kyathappa and few villagers from Chikkaballapura alleging that commercial enterprise was being set up in ecologically fragile area and that government illegally allotted the land.
The Union Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Ecology, Karnataka Government, Principal Chief Conservator of Forest and Isha Yoga Centre are four of the 16 respondents.
Reportedly, the PIL says that the authorities allowed blatant violation, destroying of the environment, watershed, and core command area of Nandi Hills, NDB Foothills in Chikkaballapura Hobli. They said that it was done so at instance of spiritual guru of the yoga centre to establish commercial activities in the core area of the greenery hillock of Panchgiri Nandi Range.
The PIL claims that in violation of environmental laws, the authorities permitted the destruction and defacing of the eco system, environment, and natural rainwater streams, water bodies, and water feeder streams in the foothills of the Nandi Hills and Narasimha Devaru Range (Betta), which have existed for many centuries. This has a direct impact on the living, livelihood, cattle, sheep, and wild animals in the region of the Nandi Hills.
