Plans by the Karnataka Veterinary, Animal and Fisheries Sciences University to build the State’s first state-of-the-art super-speciality veterinary hospital and pet park on its Hebbal campus here appears to have run into rough weather with the State government proposing to build an annexe for the Nyaya Grama, residential quarters for High Court judges, on that land.The university has opposed the government’s proposal to take away four acres of its prime land for building the annexe for Nyaya Grama.In a written objection to the government, the university authorities have stated that they cannot give up the land as they want to build a super-speciality veterinary hospital and pet park on it.They have also pointed out that these lands are being used for grazing and for cultivation and as demonstration plots for various fodder varieties.There is a need for setting up a centre for National Cadet Corps on this land as part of curriculum, they have noted.The university authorities have pointed out in the letter that the decision to build the hospital and pet park had been taken at the university’s board meeting on January, 25, 2024, in Bidar.According to sources, the university plans to build them on seven acres of land of which the government wants to take away four acres.ObjectionsA team of Revenue officials visited the spot along with the administrative-side representatives of the Karnataka High Court on September 9, it is learnt. After the inspection, the university authorities reportedly filed their objections to the proposal.It is learnt that the hospital is planned at a cost of about ₹50 crore under public-private partnership. It would have all modern facilities for veterinary treatment, including facility to train dogs.A former university official expressed concern that taking away land would come in the way of teaching, research and extension.“The land available with the Hebbal campus is constantly dwindling and there is a fear of some of the courses coming under the scanner if the land goes below that prescribed by the Veterinary Council of India (VCI),” he said.“We need lands to grow fodder crops for daily use as well as national-level research as per VCI norms. Priority should be given to veterinary-related activities while allotting land on this campus as there is a dire need to provide space for an expansion unit of the Institute of Animal Health and Veterinary Biologicals, that produces animal vaccines,” he said.Dr. N. K. Rai, an octogenarian veterinary expert and activist, who had earlier waged a legal battle to protect the land belonging to the university, said it would not be legally correct to give away the land that had been donated by the then Mysore kings for a specific purpose of studies in agriculture and veterinary sciences to other purposes.He recalled that the government had withdrawn its notification on construction of residential quarters for judges sometime in 2011 to conform to this logic and instead given the ministerial residential quarters built on about 14 acres of land in the custody of Karnataka Agro Industries Corporation for housing the judges.Adjoining heritage siteThe area adjoining the land proposed to be taken over to build the annexe for Nyaya Grama in Hebbal houses century-old structures that once served as offices and experimental workshops for the legendary Canadian plant protection specialist L.C. Coleman, who became the first director of Agriculture in Karnataka. The first ever iron plough was manufactured in this workshop. There is a demand by agricultural experts to turn this space into a heritage site, which is now in a bad shape.The then Mysore king, Krishnaraja Wadiyar, had set up an experimental farm here in 1904 which later became Mysore Agricultural School in 1913 and became the foundation for the University of Agricultural Sciences-Bengaluru that also comprised veterinary sciences thenPublished - September 20, 2025 09:28 pm IST