BENGALURU: Mushrooming of resorts on the fringes of forest areas has always worried the Karnataka Forest Department, which has to keep the buffer zone and forest lands safe from their colleagues in the Revenue Department and private organisations.
Now, forest department officials allege that staffers of the revenue department have handed over forest land in three parcels to a big resort operator in an unauthorised way, with the latter also having started sending safari vehicles into the forests towards Sakleshpur. Agitated by the trespass, forest officials are working on filing a case against the revenue department and the resort owner in the Karnataka High Court.
The department has already started trial court proceedings against the resort and revenue department. It has also filed an FIR against the resort proprietors. A senior forest department official told TNIE, “As per 1920 land records, the area is notified as forest land under Section 4. The revenue department officials, without seeking permission from us, handed over the land on Survey Number 92 in Achhanahalli, Moikangudda. As per Supreme Court orders, the forest lands cannot be diverted for any other purpose without their approval.”
The official stated that in 2015, 5.24 acres of land on Survey Number 92 was given away by the revenue department, then 5 acres in Survey Number 157/2 in 2017, and 8 acres in Survey Number 153 in 2021. The forest staffers mention that even after slapping notice on the resort owner, the establishment continues to operate. They also state that they have seized resort vehicles trespassing into forest lands, but yet they continue to enter. Tourists have also been caught trekking into the forest without permission.
Even as the Hassan DC has said that he would inquire into the matter, the forest department points out that this is not the only case. “There are nine other resorts which have got land in a similar manner, apart from several individual homes and properties,” he alleged.