Subheadline: Thousands gathered at Lalbagh to oppose a proposed parks amendment and a tunnel road project that would pass beneath the botanical garden.
Bengaluru | August 31, 2026
Thousands of Bengalureans gathered at Lalbagh on Sunday for the ‘Walk for Lalbagh’ campaign, opposing the Karnataka Government Parks (Preservation) (Amendment) Bill, 2026, and a proposed North-South tunnel road between Hebbal and Silk Board Junction. The demonstration marked the return of a large-scale citizen-led civic protest in the city after nearly a decade.
The proposed amendment would allow the state government to sell or lease 5% of park space for public infrastructure projects. Protesters said the provision could enable the diversion of protected urban green spaces for construction. Citizens, activists, public figures and representatives of civic groups participated in the march and called for the preservation of Lalbagh.
Christopher D’Cruz, a resident of HRBR Layout who travelled about 12 km to attend the event, said Lalbagh belonged to the people and that no government had the right to sell or lease away parks. “It may be 5% of the park this time. The next government may increase it to 10%. If we remain silent, the next generation will be left with nothing,” he said.
The gathering included former high court judge Justice N Kumar, Padma Shri awardee Prof MK Sridhar, cardiac surgeon Dr Vivek Jawali, Dr Govindaiah Yatheesh, radio jockey Prithvi, actors Sudha Belawadi, Samyukta Hornad and Pranitha Subhash, among others. Blind students and children from the Samarthanam Trust also attended the demonstration.
The protest also targeted the proposed tunnel road, which participants said would run for about 20 km at a depth of roughly 120 feet beneath Bengaluru’s Lalbagh Botanical Garden. Environmentalist A N Yellappa Reddy said the project lacked geological, environmental and hydrological assessment, and warned that construction could affect underground water channels, rock formations and nearby high-rises. These concerns were presented by protesters and environmental campaigners at the demonstration.
Bangalore South MP L S Tejasvi Surya said opposition to both the tunnel road and the proposed park-diversion provision would continue until Chief Minister D K Shivakumar withdrew the proposals. “Bengaluru does not require a project which comes at the cost of losing a 266-year-old Lalbagh and a 3-billion-year-old National Geological Monument,” he said.
The demonstration was described by participants as the city’s first major civic mobilisation since protests against the proposed steel flyover in October 2016. That project was later shelved. Activists said the Covid-19 pandemic and a subsequent high court order restricting protests to Freedom Park had reduced the scale of street-based civic campaigns, with public opposition increasingly expressed through social media and WhatsApp groups.
Prabhakar Rao of the Go Green Cycling Forum, which has campaigned on environmental issues for 18 years, said opportunities were being created to damage the remaining natural environment. Actor Pranitha Subhash said her request was that no construction take place in Lalbagh, while actor Samyukta Hornad said the ecological damage caused today would remain after governments changed. The state government’s next response to the proposed amendment and tunnel road will determine the immediate course of the two contested projects.
