Karnataka HC orders status quo on unveiling of Adiyogi statue near Nandi Hills

The High Court of Karnataka on Wednesday (January 12) ordered status quo on the unveiling of Adiyogi statue and the opening of Isha Yoga Centre at the foothills of the Nandi Hills near Bengaluru.

Issuing notices to the state, the yoga centre, and 14 other respondents, the court issued the interim order of stay.

The statue was scheduled to be inaugurated by Sadhguru’s Isha Foundation on January 15.

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The Public Interest Litigation (PIL) alleged that a commercial enterprise was being set up in an ecologically fragile environment and that the government has illegally allotted land for the purpose.

The PIL was filed by Kyathappa S and a few other villagers from Chikkaballapur.

The Union Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Ecology, Karnataka government, Principal Chief Conservator of Forest, and Isha Yoga Centre, Coimbatore, are among the 16 respondents.

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The PIL alleged that the authorities allowed, in blatant violation, the destroying of the environment ecosystem, watershed, core command area of Nandi Hills, NDB Foothills in Chikkaballapura Hobli to establish a private foundation at the base of the famous Nandi Hills “at the instance of spiritual guru of the yoga centre to establish commercial activities in the core area of greenery hillock viz. Panchagiri Nandi Range.”

The PIL said the authorities allowed the destruction and defacement of the ecosystem, environment and natural rainwater streams, water bodies, water feeder streams in the foothill of Nandi Hills and Narasimha Devaru Range (Betta), which have been existent for several centuries, in violation of environmental laws. This, the petition said, will have a direct impact on the living, livelihood, cattle, sheep, wild animals, in the region of Nandi Hills.

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The PIL claims that the rivers north Pinakini and south Pinakini originate in Nandi Hills, which would be affected.

It says the yoga centre brought a metal idol of Lord Shiva and assembled to deface the land for the idol installation overnight.