Madhu Bangarappa asks Forest Department officers not to issue notices to farmers over encroachment cases

Minister for School Education Madhu Bangarappa has instructed Forest Department officials not to issue notices to farmers on charges of encroaching upon forest land unless there were court directions.

In a Karnataka Development Programme review meeting at Shivamogga on November 28, Mr. Bangarappa, who is also the in-charge Minister of the district, directed forest officers to inform the Deputy Commissioner before taking any action with regard to alleged encroachment. “We have issued the instruction with regard to issuing notices to farmers several times. If officials continue to do the same, we will have to take action against them,” he stated.

Araga Jnanendra, former Minister and Tirthahalli MLA, said that the Forest Department, in certain cases, had declared entire villages as a deemed forest, leaving cultivators and residents in difficulties. “There are several families who got land sanctioned several decades ago. If the Forest Department wants to book cases against them now, they should include the officers responsible for sanctioning of these lands. If there is any mistake in sanctioning, the officers concerned should be held responsible, not the innocent cultivators,” he argued.

Sharada Puryanaik, Shivamogga Rural MLA, said that in her constituency too, many people had been suffering because of the notices issued by forest officials. “The officers are issuing notices to farmers asking them to bring all documents and records pertaining to their lands. The department should stop harassing these poor people, whose land was sanctioned by the Revenue Department long ago,” she noted. Similarly, Beluru Gopala Krishna, Sagar MLA, stated that the officials should not issue notices, as the joint survey of the land by officers of the Revenue and Forest departments had not been completed yet.

Deputy Commissioner Gurudatta Hegde stated that the district administration had completed the survey of land granted to the people displaced owing to irrigation projects. “There were around 2,000 applications across the district from people arguing that their land had not been included. Our officers are clearing those applications. Soon, we will take up the survey of the deemed forest as well. Legislators have the opportunity to raise issues related to deemed forests,” he added.

Elected representatives and officials of various departments were present at the meeting.