BENGALURU: A clash between the forest department and the Kodagu district administration over diversion of a piece of reserve forest land to build a school reached a flashpoint a few days ago with officials from both departments filing complaints against each other.
On January 9, Kodagu deputy commissioner Venkata Raja issued an order granting one acre of land bearing survey No 69/1 in Pattighat Reserve Forest near Sampaje village in Madikeri taluk to house the school.
According to forest officials, after the DC issued the order, a group of people from Sampaje cleared the forest land on March 3. They attacked a few forest officials who tried to stop them. “We were beaten up and local police did not reach the spot on time,” said a forester, who was also attacked.
Following this, an FIR was registered against 11 forest officials, including deputy conservator of forests of Kodagu Bhaskar B. He has been named as accused No 1 in the FIR.
Bhaskar said the land in contention is part of the reserve forest. It was declared as a reserve forest in 1904 by the then chief commissioner of Kodagu. “We informed the DC that the land is part of the reserve forest and it can’t be diverted for other purposes. A survey was conducted by the tahsildar on March 6 and the DC’s office declared it as government land,” he said.
On March 4, the DCF held a meeting with the DC to resolve the matter and request him to withdraw the complaint against forest officials, failing which a complaint will be filed under the Wildlife Protection Act and the Forest Clearance Act against the officials of the district administration.
Principal chief conservator of forests Meenakshi Negi said the land in contention is forest land and it can’t be diverted without following certain procedures. Forest department’s clearance is needed for diversion of forest land for non-forest purposes.
The matter also caught the attention of forest, environment and ecology minister Eshwar B Khandre, who told the forest department to resolve it. On how the forest land was granted and whether the decision will be reversed, Raja said, “The forest department delayed in responding to my letter. We held a discussion with them. A decision will be taken soon.”