Probe into allotment of forest land sought

In a press meet here, president of the Parisara Abhivrudhi Samithi D S Doreswamy told reporters that about 21,965 acres of areas in and around the hill came under the reserve forest. Of which around 400 acres land belonged to revenue department.

However, the officials of both the department have colluded to allocate the land to the people with vested interest and profit motive.

Though, the forest department’s service was enough to cater to the services of safari, many illegal resorts have come up in the guise of safari.

He alleged the Vivekananda Girijana Kalyana Kendra(VGKK) of running a resort in the guise of Gorukana prakruthi Anubhava Kendra. The progressive forum opposed the forest department’s move to relocate the soligas of BR Hills to the mainland.

Instead, the department should ouster the illegal occupants who running commercial and business units, he said.

C N Govindaraju, C M Krishnamurthy and others were present. Meanwhile, the VGKK has clarified that it was not running any resort in the Gorukana. The centre had been established on revenue land and conforms with the foret and revenue act rules. The allegations on the VGKK was far from truth. Infact, Union Minister Jairam Ramesh was supposed to open the centre on Thursday but he could not attend the programme because of an important assignment in China.

It said the centre was run purely for education purpose and GKVK was not running a resort there. The safari and trekking will be operated with permission from forest department, it said.