Chikkamagaluru forest officials book two cases over encroachment of 580 acres of forest land

The Forest Department officials of Chikkamagaluru district have registered two cases with regard to encroachment of 580 acres of forest area in Balehonnur Range.

The officials filed the case against three people from Kalasa on charges of encroaching upon 450 acres of Halasur Reserved Forest area in Kalasa taluk. The RFO of Balehonnur, in his complaint registered on October 24, stated that S.B. Shankar, S.B. Prabhakar and Sunitha of Kalasa encroached upon the forest area spread over survey number 36 of Thanodi village in Kalasa taluk.

In another case, the officials booked six people of Balehonnur on charges of encroaching upon 130 acres of Bannur minor forest. The alleged encroachers are Mohamed Ifthikar Adil, Mohammed Iliyas, Abdul Vahid, Adul Munaf, Abdul Gafar and Mohammed Ibrahim. They encroached the land in the survey numbers 9 of B. Kanabur village, 95, 96 and 97 of Bannur village in N.R. Pura taluk.

Absence of proper records

Both cases were detected recently, but were not new encroachments. E. Shivashankar, Deputy Conservator of Forests of Koppa Division, told The Hindu that the encroachment of Halasur forest in Kalasa taluk came to light during the verification of documents. “The land was notified as forest long back. There was an application seeking a grant of land for coffee cultivation. The applicants claimed to have been in possession of the land well before it was declared forest. However, there were no proper records to support the claim. Hence, we have booked the case,” he said.

The DCF mentioned a previous case of encroachment involving 10 acres of forest land in N.R. Pura taluk. During the inquiry, it was found that the brothers of the family encroached upon a total of 130 acres. “We have booked the case. As per the procedure, we will enquire into the encroachment and take up further action,” he added.

The officials registered the cases under various sections of the Karnataka Forest Act, 1963, and the Forest Conservation Act, 1980, on charges of unauthorised occupancy, damaging the forest, defacing the boundary marks, and using the forest land for non-forest purposes, among others.