Bangalore, July 30 - Karnataka's environmentalists and forest officials working hard to protect the forests and their wild inhabitants have hailed the Karnataka High Court's recent judgement banning vehicular traffic at night through the famous Bandipur Wildlife Sanctuary.

The Karnataka High Court Monday banned night vehicular traffic on two roads bisecting the Bandipur forest in Chamarajanagar district.

A division bench comprising Chief Justice P.D. Dinakaran and Justice V.G. Sabhahit passed the order on a public interest litigation (PIL) petition challenging the action of the Deputy Commissioner (DC) of Chamarajanagar district in withdrawing a notification closing two roads passing through the Bandipur forest for vehicular traffic at night (from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m.).

The court has asked the ban to be implemented within five days of the judgement.

'We welcome the judgement. It's a good news for the entire conservation fraternity. Since long we've been trying hard to put an end to large scale killing of animals in road accidents,' Hari Somashekar, an environmentalist, told IANS.

Wildlife enthusiasts and environmentalists said that animal casualties from road accidents have been higher than poaching cases in recent years.

'Because of the large-scale traffic movement right through the middle of Bandipur, especially during night hours, many animals have been killed,' added Somashekar.

Somashekar is the director, publicity and awareness, Kenneth Anderson Nature Society (KANS), a wildlife and environment group working for animal protection in Bandipur.

KANS as a part of its conservation measure has been conducting weekend awareness drives to educate the commuters to be sensitive towards animals.

Over an eight month period, around 10,000 commuters were educated about accident free driving at Bandipur.