CHIKKAMAGALURU: The state government is vested with powers to drop lands sanctioned prior to the notification issued under Section 4 of the Forest Act, 1963. But to ensure justice to farmers who have been cultivating such lands with houses on them for the past 40 years after the notification, a proposal will be submitted to the Centre and the Supreme Court, Forest Minister Eshwar Khandre said on Friday.
At a meeting with MLAs, forest and revenue officers from Chikkamagaluru district at Vikas Soudha in Bengaluru, he said the Centre and the Supreme Court will be urged not to clear human settlements and cultivated lands within the deemed forests. Instead, compensatory land should be given to the forest department, the minister added.
In some cases, provisions under Section 17 have not been implemented even after 70 years of the notification issued under Section 4. This has become a hurdle in dropping such lands in the forest limits after the enforcement of the Forest Conservation Act of 1980. Therefore, it has become inevitable to submit the appeal to the Centre and the Supreme Court, Khandre said.
There are thick forests in the Chikkamagaluru region of the Western Ghats. Lands measuring around 400 acres are under single survey numbers. There will be confusion between the forest and revenue departments if a joint survey is not conducted. In this background, officials have been instructed to conduct the joint survey to resolve the problem soon, the minister said.
In the affidavit submitted to the apex court, it has been mentioned that houses, government schools and buildings, and cultivated lands exist in forestland.
A provision has been made to submit a report to the Supreme Court in this regard. Accurate surveys should be conducted to identify such lands to be made known to the court so that alternative revenue land could be given to the forest department, he said.
Local legislators TD Raje Gowda, GH Srinivas, HD Thammaiah, K Anand and Nayana Motamma, forest officials Meenakshi Negi, chief wildlife warden Subash Malkade, PCCF Biswajith Misra and Chikkamagaluru deputy commissioner Meena Nagaraj CN attended the meeting.