Revenue official illegally grants Karnataka forest land worth Rs 500 crore

Bengaluru: At a time the officials are struggling to recover encroached forest lands, it has come to light that former assistant commissioner of Bengaluru South M G Shivanna "secretly" issued an illegal order, granting a whopping 191 acres of prime land valued at over Rs 500 crore to various persons, according to documents available with DH. 

The issue has a long history that goes back to 1987. The then government had issued a notification under Section 4 of the Karnataka Forest Act, declaring its intention to notify as reserve forest an extent of 218 acres 24 gunta in survey number 37 of Sunkadakatte and 175 acres 33 gunta in survey number 42 of Nettigere. Both the parcels are in Bengaluru South taluk, which has been witnessing a realty boom in the last 20 years.

Forest officials found illegal settlements in the two parcels in 2017 and issued notices to the encroachers to vacate the area. They also found that about 52 acres had been illegally granted to various persons by the revenue officials and wrote to the revenue department to cancel the same.

The assistant commissioner, Bengaluru South, began hearing the cases in 2019 as per the Land Revenue Act. However, M G Shivanna, who took over the post, gave a new turn to the cases. Using the powers of the Forest Settlement Officer (FSO) vested with the assistant commissioner, Shivanna settled the cases in violation of the Karnataka Forest Act.

As per the Karnataka Forest Act and Karnataka Forest Rules, the FSO has to settle genuine claims of ownership in Section 4 forests. The settlement process includes inspecting the land and documents, maintaining a register of claims, preparing a joint survey map, and issuing a draft notification of the settlement.

Among the beneficiaries of the illegal proceedings conducted by Shivanna is Nataraja Gurukula, an institute linked to a senior Congress leader and former MLC. His intervention forced the government to issue an order on February 1, shutting down the settlement procedure taken up by the new FSO. Sources said revisiting of the claims by the new FSO could have paved the way for recovering the encroached land. Going further, the government has sought details of the case with regard to the institute.

In his letter to the higher ups, the Deputy Conservator of Forests, Bengaluru Urban N Ravindra Kumar has said that Shivanna not only violated the law but kept his order dated October 26, 2021, under the wraps. "The assistant commissioner cum FSO ignored the forest laws to unilaterally settle the claims under the Land Revenue Act. He kept the order under the wraps even after two years without sending it to the departments concerned. Prima facie, this has been done to help the encroachers," the DCF wrote.

As per the rule, the FSO's order has to be sent to the Deputy Commissioner and the Forest Department. Sources said a meticulous effort has been made to ensure that the Forest Department doesn't get wind of the "illegal" distribution of its lands.

It may be recalled that a city court has ordered registration of criminal case against Shivanna after the forest department complained against the illegal diversion of 18 acre of forest in Bengaluru North.