15 acres of Jarakabande Kaval forest recovered

Bengaluru: The Forest Department has recovered 15 acres encroached upon by HMT at the Jarakabande Kaval sandalwood reserve forest.

The 15 acres is part of survey number 18 and 19 of the Jarakabande Forest and is contiguous to the training institute of the Hindustan Machine Tools (HMT) in Jalahalli.

In 2017, the state government had ruled that the land belongs to the Forest Department. However, despite the government order, forest officials had not taken possession of the land.

Following instructions by Forest, Ecology and Environment Minister Eshwar Khandre, a team led by N Ravindra Kumar, Bengaluru Deputy Conservator of Forests, entered the area and erected boards, declaring that the area belongs to the department.

The said land is part of the 444-acre 12-gunta Jarakabande Kaval sandalwood reserve forest, which was notified in a notification dated August 10, 1932. However, the land was illegally allocated to the Indian Air Force and HMT in 1987. The Forest Department had raised objections to the allocation, which led to the government issuing the order in 2017.