BENGALURU: Forest, environment and Ecology Department Minister Eshwar B Khandre on Saturday said an appeal will be made to the courts to cancel the lease period of the companies and agencies that have occupied forest areas on long-term lease periods and have not paid the lease amount.
Speaking at the 60 years celebration of ‘MyForest’ and the release of the journal, in the city, he said there are multiple and stringent laws for forest and land protection, yet there is encroachment and cases where long-term lease dues are pending and long pending appeals in courts are standing.
The nature of the land cannot be changed and one of the prime clause in all lease agreements is that the land use cannot be altered during the lease period. The government is working to recover the leased and encroached lands.
“Not a single inch of land will be encroached and all forest lands will be recovered,” he said.
Explaining the lease details, a senior forest department official said, around 7,000 acres of forest lands has been leased and the dues pending to the government are to the tune of over Rs 2000 crore. The largest land parcels leased are in Coorg and BRT forest divisions to coffee and rubber plantations.
“The land leases are now claiming to be owners of the land and the lease amounts are due in the last 30 years. When the lands were first leased in 1909, the lease period was for 999 years, which was later changed by the state government in 1940 to a period of 99 years. But this has also now found to be a long pending duration,” the official said.
The lease agreement conditions have been violated, resorts and home stays have come up in timber and coffee plantations. The companies have also sold the land to others and even sub- leased the land citing financial losses.