JOIN US1.5K acres of reserve forest turned into agricultural field in Karnataka but Forest Department remains mum
Over 1,500 acres of reserve forest land in the backwaters of Tattihalla Dam in Bhagawati Range of Haliyal division (Uttara Kannada district) has been allegedly encroached by farmers and individuals over the last three to four years. And the Forest Department is yet to take up any ‘formal investigation’ or action against the perpetrators.
Environment and RTI activist Manjunath Y Baddi said it has been almost a month since a formal complaint regarding this was filed with Additional Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (Vigilance) Seema Garag and Principal Chief Conservator of Forest Sanjay Mohan regarding deforestation in reserve forest area in Tattihalla, Machapura and Bogura villages. “I have provided them satellite images, photographs and video records of forest land being encroached. However, so far, no action has been initiated by the forest department. On the contrary, officials posted in Haliyal division are now hushing up the matter by digging trenches and pits to plant saplings, using four to five earth-mowing machines day and night,” Baddi alleged.
He also claimed that thousands of trees, including medicinal, endemic and those over hundred years old, have been axed to make way for the farmers to cultivate paddy, sugarcane, maize, jowar, cotton and other crops in what was once an elephant and tiger corridor.
The said forest land was leased out to the Karnataka Power Corporation Limited (KPCL) for the construction of Tattihalla Dam across a tributary of the Kali river in 1979. As a requirement, the forest department also provided land keeping maximum water level of the dam backwaters in mind in these three villages. However, over the years, farmers and individuals have encroached the land and started cultivating them, much against the rules.
Two senior Forest Department officials, who did not wish to be named, confirmed to DH that the encroachment of the reserve forest land took place over the last three-four years and a few of the officers posted in the division colluded with the encroachers.
Sirsi Forest Vigilance Squad in-charge S P Hedge said: “We received a complaint from Manjunath recently. Based on the complaint, we had asked Yellapur ACF and two range officers to visit the area. According to the officials, large-scale encroachment (at least 700-800 acres of reserve forest land) has taken place in the backwaters of Tattihalla Dam and it needs an investigation.”
The oral report of those officials says that the encroachments had taken place at least three to four years ago and not recently as the farmers had completely uprooted the trees or burnt them to root, Hegde said and added that his powers were limited to only checking if there was forest on those lands and whther ab FIR was filed against the encroachers.
However Haliyal Deputy Conservator of Forests Ajjaiah G R told DH the encroachments might have taken place over last two-three decades and an FIR has been registered against them. “There are also a few applications filled by farmers under the Forest Rights Act of 2005, claiming that the said land belongs to them and they have to be rehabilitated. A few of the farmers say that their property submerged in the backwaters and they have been cultivating in that land now,” he said.
He added that the problem might have aroused as there was no formal boundary fixed between KPCL and the Department.