Stop harassing us, villagers tell Forest staff

The villagers of 10 villages have been farming in 300 acres of land (77 acres is karab) in survey no 113 in Chikka Arooru and 200 acres of land (70 acres is karab) in survey no 14 in Kootanahalli in the taluk from past five to six decades.

While some of the farmers have been allotted cultivation slip others have been allotted land under Darkast. Some of the farmers are due to receive to title deeds for the land they are cultivating. The 10 villages are Peresandra, Gowdanahalli, Basavaparti, Bandahalli, Shettigere, Gundlahalli, Nallarallahalli, Samasenahalli, Tumakalahalli and Haristala where agriculture land has been allotted to farmers under DLR 192/62-63 order.

“In spite of these documents the forest officials are harassing us and are digging trenches destroying crops in some fields and effecting sowing in some fields,” the villagers alleged. They added that the forest officials had entered their fields on Thursday night and had dug a trench.

Not a new issue

The villagers said that this was not the first time that forest officials were harassing them. They said that in the past the forest officials had many times dug up their fields.

Recalling the events, the villagers said that in the year 1987 a complaint had been given to Department of Forest in this regard. In the year 2002, a complaint was given to Kolar Deputy Commissioner. “Harassment stopped in the year in which we had given complaint,” recalled a villager who said that trouble would begin with transfer of officials.

The villagers added that the farmers involved in cultivation were all poor.
Zonal forest officer Timmaiah pacified the protesters and promised to take action.
Farmers’ leader P G Vijay Kumar, Ramesh, Muniraju, P N Manjunath, Venkateshappa, Narayanappa, Gurumurty, Narayanaswamy and others took part in the protest.