Forest Department, KIADB in row over industrial park

Forest Department, KIADB in row over industrial park

Raghava M.

The disputed land is situated in the city’s IT corridor at Whitefield

The Kadugodi Industrial Area developed by KIADB is spread over 589 acres

The Indian Railway’s Container Corporation is located in the industrial area

— Photo: K. Gopinathan

Forest officials stopped development works on an ‘encroached’ forest land at Kadugodi in Bangalore.

BANGALORE: A high-profile industrial park in Bangalore’s IT (information technology) corridor at Whitefield is in the thick of a dispute between the Forest Department and the Karnataka Industrial Area Development Board (KIADB). While the Forest Department says the industrial park spread over 589 acres is an encroachment on forest land, the board debunks the claim.

Not content with its claims, the Forest Department in the last one year has filed 126 cases of encroachment against two companies of the Indian Railways, Container Corporation of India and Satellite Goods Terminal, which occupy 164 acres of the industrial park. Encroachment cases have also been filed against Wipro, SAM Engineering and GE Medical Systems among others. The department has booked a case against the KIADB for encroaching upon 589 acres of forest land to form the Kadugodi Industrial area.

The Forest Department alleges that the industrial area was formed on a part of 711 acres of Kadugodi reserve forest land flouting the Forest Conservation Act. The KIADB counters that the industrial area falls under the Revenue Department and that it had followed the procedures before allotting sites to various companies.

The department has booked cases against individuals too, one of whom (Gulzhar Khan) is alleged to have encroached upon 63.26 acres of land.

The Forest Department contends that 711 acres of Kadugodi village was notified as a plantation by the Government of Mysore in 1896. Subsequently, the Mysore Government declared the area as “State Forest” in 1901.

Chief Conservator of Forest, Bangalore, U.V. Singh, said the status continues even today and the land is under the administrative control of the Forests Department.

In September 2006, the Special Deputy Commissioner, Bangalore, passed an order stating that the KIADB had not acquired forest land and it had not violated the provisions of the Forest Act.

However, the Forest Department has questioned the locus standi of the Special Deputy Commissioner in adjudicating the dispute.

Mr. Singh said, “It continues to be a reserve forest. We have booked cases and initiated the legal process.”

The former Deputy Conservator of Forests (Bangalore Urban), A.M. Annaiah, who initiated the action against the alleged encroachment, said forest land can be used for non-forestry purposes only after it is de-notified by the Union Government on the recommendation of the State Government as laid down under Section 2 of the Forest Conservation Act, 1980. “In this case such a process has not been followed,” he said.

The KIADB denies the claim of the Forest Department. A senior official of KIADB told The Hindu that the Kadugodi land was given by the Forest Department to the Revenue Department in 1950 for the purpose of “disforestation”.

“We have legally acquired this land for the formation of the industrial area. A series of notifications were issued since 1980 for acquiring the land,” the official said. Denying the allegation of encroachment, the senior official said, “The status of the land changed in 1950 when the Forest Conservation Act was not in force.” He said the Forest Department had failed to participate in any of the proceedings before the notification was issued. “Now the Forest Department cannot claim it as forest land when many industries have come up,” the official said.