State reconstitutes panel on forest encroachment

The 15-member committee is headed by chief secretary

The State government has reconstituted the special team set up to restore the forest lands, including at Jakkur Allalasandra reserve forest, in the City.

The special team, was initially constituted on October 1, 2015, under the chairmanship of senior IFS officer and Chief Executive Officer of Karnataka Medicinal Plants Authority (KaMPA) Dr U V Singh. Even before the team could start its work, the Department of Forests, Ecology and Environment, on October 26, 2015, dissolved it and constituted a different team headed by Chief Secretary Kaushik Mukherjee.

The earlier team had Additional Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (APCCF) K S Sugur as its co-chairman and APCCFs Meenakshi Negi and Hari Kumar Jha as members. Chief Conservator of Forests GS Kariyappa, former APCCF Venkatasubbaiah and Bangalore Urban Deputy Conservator of Forests Sunil Panwar were also a part of this team. The Team was allowed to make field visits, to obtain necessary documents from the departments concerned, including Revenue. The team was also authorised to summon any officer from the Forests, Revenue, Law and Police departments whenever required, and also take action to recover/reclaim the notified forest lands.

 The newly-formed team consists of 15 members, including two additional chief secretaries (Forest and Urban Development), regional commissioner, principal secretary of Revenue department, BBMP and  commissioners, commissioner of Survey Settlement and Land Records, director of State Archives, deputy commissioners of Bengaluru Urban and Rural districts, and few officials from the Forest Department.

The order dated, October 26, 2015, stated that chief secretary, in consultation with Forest Minister Ramanath Rai,  had suggested the reconstitution of the team.

Rai said that the earlier team was constituted in a ‘hurry’ and the new team has been asked to submit the report within one year. ”The first team was set up in a hurry and since many departments have to be involved in the enquiry, we formed this team with chief secretary as its chairman. Dr U V Singh is also one of the members in the newly formed team. The team will submit its report within one year,” Rai said.

The Forest department officials held a series of meeting with the officials of other departments before constituting the teams. In the meetings held on Aug 5 and Sept 23, this year, the officials held that there was a clear violation of Karnataka Forest Act in seven different categories of forest land encroachments, including Jakkur-Allalasandra reserve forest.

As many as 70 fictitious survey numbers were created, at the Jakkur-Allalasandra Plantation spread over 377 acres and 28 guntas, in order to mislead the government agencies.