Bidadi is not empty land — it is a living agricultural ecosystem feeding Bengaluru.

The Karnataka government has issued a final notification to begin acquiring land for the Greater Bengaluru Integrated Township (GBIT) — a ₹18,133 crore project spread across roughly 9,600 acres of fertile farmland near Bidadi, just 40 km from Bengaluru. Over 5,000 farmers across nine revenue villages stand to lose the land their families have cultivated for generations.

This is irreversible. Once this land is concretised, it does not come back.

What we stand to lose:

🌳 Nearly 2 lakh trees face felling — including 87,903 coconut trees, 83,536 arecanut trees, over 3 lakh banana plants, 12,550 mango trees, and 2,344 chikoo trees. Decades of green cover and carbon sink, gone.

💧 Groundwater recharge and water security for the entire region, which fertile agricultural land sustains and concrete cannot replace.

🐄 The livelihoods of 3,500 farming families — over 80% of whom have said clearly they do not want this project — plus dairy, horticulture, sericulture, and allied rural workers.

🌾 Active food production — ragi alone is grown on 231 acres of the proposed area, along with paddy and red gram that feed the city.

🏡 Generations of agrarian knowledge, identity, and rural resilience.

Farmers here have protested peacefully for over 470 days. Their demand is not anti-development — it is for fair development. The Devanahalli farmers' agitation already proved this land can be saved: there, the government rescinded acquisition of 1,777 acres for an aeropark.

We call upon the Government of Karnataka and the GBDA to:

• Pause the land acquisition and withdraw the final notification until genuine, transparent public consultation is completed.
• Conduct an independent Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and social impact survey before any further step.
• Protect fertile agricultural and ecologically valuable land from irreversible conversion.
• Relocate the project to dry, degraded, or barren land — of which Karnataka has plenty — instead of destroying productive farmland.
• Make all project details, land records, and assessments public.
• Include farmers, environmental experts, and local communities as equal participants in the decision.
• Development and farmland are not enemies. A truly modern city does not begin by erasing the land and people that feed it.

Sign and share. Save Bidadi. Protect farmland. Protect water. Protect future generations.