BENGALURU: After nearly 12 years, Bengaluru Urban division of the Karnataka Forest Department recovered 35 acres of Bhootanahali Minor Forest in Anekal which had been encroached. Four people, including a gram panchayat member, had encroached on the land and used it as farmland. However, for the past three-four years, it has not been cultivated.
A writ petition challenging the Forest Department’s orders was filed with the High Court in 2010. It was in July 2019 that the court passed an order in favour of the Forest Department, which subsequently issued notices to clear the encroachment.
The 35 acres are only a small part of the 540-acre Bhootanahalli forest, of which 160 acres is still encroached. “We will recover another 25 acres soon. The area is important as it is next to Bengaluru where land prices are high. The people who had encroached the land had political backing,” a forest department official said.
“Reclaiming forest land is difficult,” the official said, as revenue officials illegally hand over forest land or do not clear the forest department files.