MASARURU (SHIVAMOGGA DISTRICT): The death of a farmer at Masaruru village in Hosanagara taluk on Friday has taken a political twist with elected representatives blaming it on a forest official who was leading a forest encroachment eviction drive. The Ripponpet police have booked Range Forest Officer G Hanumanthayya under Section 304 (punishment for culpable homicide not amounting to murder) of the IPC in connection with the farmer’s death.
However, the forest department has maintained that the deceased was not on the list of encroachers and that the protest was being staged for “political mileage”. Officials said the department took up a drive to clear forest encroachment at Masaruru for the last few days as per the direction of the Supreme Court. They said that of the 300 acres of forest land in Survey No. 90/94 of Masaruru reserve forest, 170 acres were encroached upon by villagers.
According to a complaint by Nagesh, the son of farmer Lakshmanappa (80), after learning that the forest department staff were heading towards Masaruru village with 300 of their men and 250 police personnel, Lakshmanappa, who was staging a dharna at 10 am on Friday, collapsed and was taken to a hospital in an ambulance. However, Lakshmanappa died around 3 pm after suffering a heart attack. The complainant Nagesh demanded legal action against RFO Hanumanthayya and other forest staff of Arasalu range, blaming them for his father’s death.
When TNIE visited Masaruru village and RFO office at Arasalu village on Saturday, the villages had turned into fortresses with heavy police deployment to ensure no untoward incident takes place during the burial of the deceased farmer.
Deputy Conservator of Forest Anthony S Mariyappa told TNIE that the staff along with police, tahsildar and ambulance visited the village at 4 pm to clear the encroachment. However, the villagers staged a protest by blocking the entrance of the village and opposed the entry of the teams. “The teams returned after the tahsildar promised a joint survey by revenue and forest departments.
However, according to the complaint lodged by Nagesh, Lakshmanappa died at 3 pm. Nagesh says Lakshmanappa collapsed at 10 am and was taken to a hospital where he was declared dead at 3 pm. When he was not the encroacher, why would our staff go to his land? There is no connection between the death and the encroachment clearance drive,” he said.Forest staff, who did not want to be named, said the RFO was facing trouble as he was tough on encroachers