A recent order by Assistant Commissioner of Hassan sub-division, converting 61 acres and 32 guntas of forest land at Tyavihalli adjoining Bengaluru-Mangaluru highway near Hassan to grazing land (gomala), has set off alarm bells in the Forest Department. The Assistant Conservator of Forests (ACF) of Hassan has served a notice to the Assistant Commissioner and tahsildar of Hassan questioning the basis for the conversion.
Forest officials believe that the conversion is aimed at helping real estate interests, as the land abuts the busy Bengaluru-Mangaluru highway.
Acting on a petition by a few villagers of Tyavihalli in Shantigrama hobli, on January 5 this year, Assistant Commissioner B.A. Jagadish ordered that 61 acres and 32 guntas of land in Survey Number 22 of Tyavihalli be designated as gomala (grazing land) in the record of rights, tenancy and crops (RTC/pahani).
The petitioners had submitted that they had no access to their farmlands, except through this land, and forest officials were resisting construction of a road. The Forest Department and the tahsildar had failed to furnish documents to prove that the land was allotted to them.
The Forest Department is of the view that the land is part of the C and D classes of land that the State Government allotted to the Forest Department in 1981. The RTC since 1981-82 shows the land as forest land. The department had taken up plantation activities on the land.
Taking exception to the Revenue Department’s order, Hassan sub-division ACF Prabhu I.B., earlier in February, issued notices to Hassan Assistant Commissioner and the tahsildar under Section 64 (A) of the Karnataka Forest Act, 1963, which grants power to the forest official to take measures to conserve forest land.
He maintained that the Assistant Commissioner’s order violates provisions of the Karnataka Forest Conservation Act, 1980. In his notice, he wanted to know if the Assistant Commissioner had taken prior approval from the Central Government, as mandated by the Karnataka Land Revenue Act, 1964. He also asked if there is any particular government order to change the RTC/pahani of the land.
The officer, in his notice, cited the Supreme Court order in T.N. Godavarman Thirumalkpad Vs Union of India case, which states that ‘the Forest Conservation Act, 1980, was enacted with a view to check further deforestation, which ultimately results in ecological imbalance and, therefore, the provisions made therein for the conservation of forest and for matters connected therewith, must apply to all forests irrespective of the nature of ownership’.
‘Will help real estate developers’
A senior officer of the Forest Department opined that conversion of forest land into grazing land would help investors who had developed a layout adjacent to the forest land.
As the land is close to National Highway 75 (Bengaluru-Mangaluru), the land developers and encroachers of the forest land would benefit from the order of the Hassan Assistant Commissioner. “The Revenue Department has passed similar orders in Bengaluru and other places. The Forest Department has challenged such orders,” the officer said.
