Lakes, forests look for some breathing space

Lakes, forests look for some breathing space
Dipannita Das | TNN

Bangalore: There are only a handful of survivors among the 262 tanks and lakes that once made Bangalore a cool city. These remaining water bodies too may soon become a part of history, going by the way they are being encroached upon.
According to a recent study by the Bangalore Urban forest division, the 48 water bodies under the forest department’s jurisdiction with a total tank bed area of 3,379 acres have lost 313 acres to encroachers. As many as 441 land grabbers encroached upon tanks and lakes for formation of sites and development of layouts.
This could not have happened without the connivance of forest officials who allowed the encroachment for over 10 years and local civic bodies that permitted construction of houses in forest land.
One interesting case was that of Jairam Hegde. After issuing a notice on November 8, 2002, the forest department did not take any action to arrest or evict him. The department kept quiet for eight months and Hegde filed a title suit in the civil court on July 19, 2003. He had purchased the land from different persons on registered sale deeds in 1994.
Other cases indicate that the department, despite being empowered under the Karnataka Forest Act, 1963, did not take action to arrest or evict encroachers. Also, when the encroacher filed a suit in the civil court, the department did not file a copy of the government notifications declaring the land as forest land.
A joint legislative committee on encroachment in Bangalore Urban district, headed by former JD(S) MLA A T Ramaswamy, recommended action for criminal negligence against the forest department officials concerned — from range forest officer to deputy conservator of forests and other senior officers. The committee also suggested that a complete survey of tanks be conducted to ascertain the correct extent of tank bed encroachments.
The plight of Bannerghatta National Park is also bad. According to forest department’s latest list of encroachment, 558 persons had encroached on 813 acres of the total 18,198 acres.
The department took no action to bring encroachers to trial as provided in the Karnataka Forest Act. In 325 cases, the department stated that “action under progress.’’
In addition to the national park, deputy conservator of forests for the urban district forests exclusively covers 8,476 acres of forests. As per the statement filed by the department, 1,099 acres of forest land have been encroached by 312 persons.
toiblr.reporter@timesgroup.com