New cover for forest land

New cover for forest land
By S Praveen Dhaneshkar, DH News Service, Bangalore:
"The AT Ramaswamy Committee looking into the encroachments of government land is formulating regulations to nip the menace in the bud," official sources told Deccan Herald.


Faced with the increasing problem of encroachment of forest land, the State government is contemplating to take drastic measures to put an end to the menace.

“The AT Ramaswamy Committee looking into the encroachments of government land is formulating regulations to nip the menace in the bud,” official sources told Deccan Herald.

This comes at a time when the forest department recently recovered 124 acres and two guntas of its land at the Bannerghatta National Park (BNP).

The Deputy Conservator of Forests, Vanashree Singh said private developers had encroached a land at Kalkere in Bannerghatta (survey no 64- Bhuthanahally) under the guise of cultivation, and tried to form layouts and cheat the gullible public.

“The unauthorised layout, ‘Indiranagar Badavane’ was formed without our knowledge. We had to book forest offense cases and issue notices against 63 encroachers under the Karnataka Forest Act (Section 64A) and evict them. They had taken over land by procuring bogus grant certificates from the Revenue Department,” explained Ms Singh.

The area declared as a protected forest is home to wild elephants and other animals. “The forest department has, as per the directions of the Joint Legislative Committee, evicted all 124 acres and demolished few constructions and marking that the developers had done for layouts,” said E S Sathyanarayana, Range Forest Officer (RFO), Bannerghatta National Park.

The forest department has also dug Elephant Proof Trenches (EPTs) with 2.5 meters depth to prevent herds of wild elephants from entering into human habitat at surrounding villages. Plans are afoot to take up an afforestation drive to plant bamboos in the core forest area to prevent herds of jumbos from straying into human settlements in search of food.

“This not only prevents elephants and panthers that roam all over the forest at nights, but also acts as a boundary to demarcate forest land from villages,” added Ms Singh.

No fence

When Deccan Herald visited the national park, no visible sign of either a fence or proper boundary to separate forest land from adjoining villages was seen. Though sign boards warning people that they are in protected forest reserve area have been put up by the BNP, encroachments may easily go unnoticed as in the case of the above incidents.

The encroachment is not just restricted to private people. The KPTCL has also been asked to pay Rs one crore to the BNP under the Forest Conservation Act 1980 for occupying 3.8 hectares of land to lay power transmission lines.

Officials requesting anonymity say the department had not fully utilised its powers under the Forest Act, despite it being more stringent than the Police Act, leading to encroachers taking advantage and occupying land.