The Hindu : State seeks review of SC verdict on encroachment

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jan 07, 2003

Southern States

Southern States - Karnataka

State seeks review of SC verdict on encroachment

By Our Special Correspondent

Bangalore Jan. 6. The Government has sought review of a recent Supreme Court judgment on removing encroachments from forest lands before May 30.

Speaking to presspersons here today, the Minister for Law and Parliamentary Affairs, D.B.Chandre Gowda, said that implementation of the judgment would lead to eviction of a large number of people who had built homesteads or were cultivating forest lands. Those people were living on forest lands without disturbing the forests. Many of them were tribal people who were traditionally living on forest land.

Mr. Chandre Gowda said that the last time a survey settlement of forest land was conducted in the Old Mysore region was in 1928. Later, large areas were declared as forests without a survey. Today, there was need for a fresh survey to determine the forest land. He noted that under the Forest Conservation Act of 1980, the Government could regularise `bagar hukum' or unauthorised cultivation of forest land. The Act was amended in 1993. Firstly, the word forest had to be maintained. At present, a hectare of land with 25 trees could be declared as a forest.

The minister wanted the Centre to take note of the realities, the settlement of people on forest land, and use of forest land for cultivation and introduce a fresh legislation. The problem existed in the other States also.

Mr. Chandre Gowda noted that a judgment of the Supreme Court delivered on October 30 last pertaining to encroachment of 611 acres of land in Chikmagalur District received wide publicity because of the people figuring in it (the 148 encroachers included the Chairman of the Legislative Council, B.L.Shankar).

It may be recalled that on December 31 last, both Houses of the Legislature adopted a resolution urging the Centre to regularise 98,978 hectares of forest land being cultivated by 1,12,254 farmers in the Malnad region.

The resolution was adopted in view of the Supreme Court order directing the Government to recover the encroached lands.

The resolution said that the Government would transfer one lakh hectares of revenue land to the Forest Department in lieu of the land encroached upon.

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