Karnataka govt sets up SITs to look for illegal grant of forest land as SC orders

Bengaluru: In a major development that will highlight the loss of forest lands to illegal grants and failed compensatory afforestation projects, the government has finally complied with a Supreme Court order to set up special investigation teams (SITs) to check extent of notified forests yet to be mutated to the forest department as well as the illegal grants.

On May 15, the apex court had ordered the chief secretaries/administrators of the states/union territories to constitute SITs to examine whether “any reserved forest land in the possession of the Revenue Department has been allotted to any private individuals/institutions for any purpose other than the forestry purpose,” recover the same and hand them over to the forest department.

As per the Forest (Conservation) Act, no forest land can be granted without prior permission from the Union Environment Ministry. However, a whopping 60,725.78 acres of forest in Karnataka have been illegally granted by revenue officials.

In addition, the government is yet to effect mutation of thousands acres of notified forest land, especially the ones notified by the erstwhile maharajas. For instance, the Karnataka high court ordered the revenue authorities to transfer 28,966.41 acres of ‘C’ and ‘D’ class land to the forest department to compensate for the damage done by the Harangi reservoir.

In a September 15 order, the state government set up district-level SITs, headed by deputy commissioner. The deputy conservator of forests would be member secretary and Deputy Director of Land Records would be a member. The three-member team will report to the state-level SIT, headed by Additional Chief Secretary, Forest, Environment and Ecology Department.

The district team has to conduct “detailed investigation” to identify forest lands in possession of the Revenue Department and allotted to private individuals/institutions for non-forest purpose, obtain copies of the sanction/allotment orders, including lands under litigation, consolidate the information and follow other orders by the state-level SIT.

To a question, Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (Head of Forest Force) Meenakshi Negi said the task had been set out by the Supreme Court. “We have made an estimation of such lands a while ago. But the SITs will follow the order in spirit to find all patches of forest and submit a report within four months,” she added.

A source said the allotments made for government institutions can get ex-post facto approval by providing land for compensatory afforestation. “However, grants made to private institutions and individuals will have to be considered as encroachment. Eventually, the government has to take a stand before the Supreme Court,” the source added.