Retrieve forest land, punish the guilty

In what could be one of the biggest land scams in recent years, running potentially into thousands of crores, large tracts of forest land abutting the Bannerghatta National Park (BNP) have been converted into revenue land and allotted to several influential people. According to forest department officers, the extent of land so converted could range from 230 to 450 acres. The scandal goes back to 2014, when the then Assistant Commissioner (Bengaluru South) L C Nagaraj passed an order declaring the land as ‘muffat gomala’ (free grazing land) belonging to the revenue department. Though this was red-flagged by the then Deputy Conservator of Forests (Bengaluru Urban) Dipika Bajpai in a letter to the Principal Secretary (Revenue), no action was initiated to rectify the situation. Typically, it was Dipika Bajpai who was subsequently transferred out while Nagaraj, the officer who passed the patently illegal order, has gone scot-free, and the land in question continues to be alienated in favour of private parties. The land is in Uttarahalli (now Padmanabhanagar), which was for long represented in the Assembly by R Ashoka, who also happens to be the Revenue Minister currently. Ashoka must act decisively to retrieve the lands.

The land was allotted to the forest department by the colonial-era administration in 1934, which was subsequently confirmed by another order in 1994. Over the years, these lands have been transformed into natural forests and now form an important stopover for elephants during their seasonal migration from Bannerghatta to Savanadurga and back. They also act as a buffer between the city and BNP and help prevent man-animal conflict and encroachment of core forest areas. Over the years, there have been several cases of the revenue department facilitating such encroachment of forest lands through illegal grants. Far from prosecuting the officers responsible, the government usually goes out of the way to protect them. Recently, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of the Assembly expressed serious disapproval of the government for refusing sanction to prosecute a KAS officer, K Ranganath, who is accused of having illegally transferred 37 acres of gomala land worth about Rs 200 crore.

The fact that scandals of such magnitude take place with unfailing regularity, irrespective of the party in power, only points to the involvement of politicians of all parties, who are the main beneficiaries, and officials. This being the case, one cannot expect the government to ensure justice in this case. The only hope is for the courts to take suo motu cognizance, or for public-spirited citizens to approach the courts and secure an order, to evict the encroachers, retrieve the lands and mete out tough punishment to the guilty.