Land conflict deepens over Karnataka govt's failure to demarcate deemed forest

The government's failure to demarcate forest boundaries, especially in the deemed forests, is leading to flare ups in villages with forest officers coming under the crossfire while clearing encroachments.

After dragging its feet for a decade, the state government on May 5 issued an order declaring 3.3 lakh hectares of forest in the state as deemed forest. However, the Revenue Department is yet to mutate the land into forests, opening the doors for conflict.

In the latest incident, Nagamangala MLA Suresh Gowdaa was caught on video abusing and threatening forest officers for harassing the villagers while taking up conservation efforts. "Cut the trees," the MLA is seen instigating the locals while ordering the forest officers against coming to the area before finalising the forest boundary.

Two associations of the Forest Department employees representing the MLAs condemned the action. In a letter to the conservator of Mysore Circle, the Karnataka State Forest Guards and Watchers Association demanded action against those abusing and threatening the forest workers on the frontline.

"The MLA doesn't care for the state government's affidavit in the Supreme Court or the government order on deemed forest. As a public representative, he should be the one to explain the legalities to the people instead of obstructing our duty. We request that you take action against such people," the association said in a petition.

To a question, Gowdaa told DH he has done his duty as the people's representative. "My language may have been bad but I have done my duty. For the last 3 years, I have been demanding the forest officials to conduct a joint survey and clear the confusion over boundary. But they continue to evict poor people who have cultivated the land for 30 years. They even fired a weapon to scare the people," he said.

A senior forest official said the foresters fired in the air as a warning when they came under attack. "That incident has nothing to do with the abuse. It is true that there is some confusion over boundaries in forest areas which are shown as gomala in revenue documents. However, the fact remains that hundreds of acres have been encroached even in areas which are shown as forest," he said.

Onus on Revenue dept

On July 20, the Additional Chief Secretary of the Forest and Environment Department has written to the Revenue Department to conduct a joint survey of the land declared as deemed forest to hand them over to the forest department.

Referring to the May 5 government order, the letter also sought early mutation of such land in the revenue (RTC) records. "The process of notifying the deemed forest area as Reserve Forest/Protected Forest under the relevant sections of the Karnataka Forests Act 1963 to be initiated. The lands assigned as deemed forests shall not be granted for any other purpose," it said.

Revenue Department Principal Secretary S R Umashankar could not be reached for a comment. A forest officer said that historically, forest-related matters get the least priority by the revenue officials.