BENGALURU: Hundreds of farmers in and around Thimmasandra, Bettahalsoor and surroundings in Yelahanka taluk of Bengaluru North are worried as the Karnataka Industrial Area Development Board (KIADB) is planning to acquire 170 acres and the Railway Department has published a notification for around 70 acres for ‘development’. The farmers said this would put their livelihoods in danger.
B Nanjundappa, an aged farmer representing the Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha, is spearheading the agitation against both state and central governments. He said 6.16 km of the railway line from Rajanukunte to Bettahalasur will run in the middle of 70 acres of fertile and lush green agricultural land. If the governments want to take up development work, they should look at barren land, he argued.
“We don’t want any compensation. All we want is to continue to cultivate land and feed people and ourselves. By taking our land, the government wants farmers to become beggars,” said a teary-eyed Nanjundappa, gazing at the rose garden and coconut palms on his 2.5-acre land.
Farmers here grow grape (Bengaluru blue), pomegranate, guava, butter fruit, chikoo and papaya; and vegetables like brinjal, potatoes, tomatoes, beans, ridge gourd, bottle gourd, pumpkin, cauliflower, cabbage, carrot and lady’s finger. Marigolds and roses are common at Bettahalasur and Thimmasandra.
“Twenty per cent of the crop is kept for families involved in agriculture in the surroundings, and the rest is supplied to the City Market and Yeshwanthpur Market,” said Sanath Kumar, a farmer with 2 acres of land.
What will we feed our future gen, asks farmer
Sanath Kumar said farmers here had already given up land for widening the road from Nelamangala to Yelahanka and also about 90 acres to a defence organisation in 1968 and 1970.
“Then, many were scared that if the land was not given, they might be arrested and shot. Even now, the title documents are in the names of farmers. We have to mobilise more farmers and seek government intervention to not only save the existing agricultural land, but also reclaim land from the defence area in Thimmasandra,” he added.
Farmers like TD Ambareesh, Jeerge Babu, Sumithra, and others said that around 250 farmers in the area are dependent on agriculture, and they have been engaged in agriculture and allied activities for ages. If land is taken away, their right to livelihood will be impacted, they added.
“What will we feed our future generations? Can we give them a computer and a railway track if they feel hungry? The government is trying to take away land by giving compensation to facilitate people coming from outside and settling in Bengaluru,” said Jeerge Babu from Hunasemaranahalli. The railway line is being built to take goods vehicles from Bengaluru to Chennai via Kolar and Bangarpet as this will avoid congestion and delay of passenger trains, he added.
The farmers met Minister of State for Railways V Somanna to seek his intervention. They also held a meeting with Revenue Department Assistant Commissioner Dr Kiran and filed objections over the notification. The Revenue Department is said to have communicated it to the Railway Department.
A senior official from the Railway Department said the proposal was initiated in 2024, and a gazette notification has also been issued. “We cannot go back on the project. The only thing farmers can do now is take compensation,” he said.