​Exempting forest grab below 3 acres led to scam: Activists to minister

'Families divide land so that area is under 3 acres'

Bengaluru: ​Activists have said that the government’s 2015 order exempting encroachments of forest land below 3 acres from eviction has led to scams and violation of the law and Supreme Court orders as officials are not counting patta land while measuring the extent of forest encroachment.

In an order issued on September 21, 2015, the government put the total forest land under encroachment at 2,04,442.16 acres, of which 36,692.25 acres (18%) were encroached prior to April 27, 1978, and hence, could be legalised.

Additionally, lands encroached by forest dwellers have to be regularised under the Forest Rights Act.

However, the government said several encroachment cases prior to April 27, 1978 were eligible for regularisation, but were missing from the submission made to the Centre in 1996.

Revised final list 

The order asked the forest department to submit a revised final list of eligible encroachers with a maximum of 3 acres (including own land and encroached land) for regularisation. 

In 2018, following a report from the Upa Lokayukta, the forest department conducted an inquiry against five officers who were accused of taking bribes of Rs 1.2 lakh per acre to allow grants of nearly 2,000 acres of land in Shivamogga district.

Among the findings of the investigation was that the members of the family of one Manjappa Gowda were allocated a total of 29 acres, by considering their individual voter identity cards.

In a petition, activist Jagadeesha noted that the government order had led to multiplication of encroachments as family members had divided huge encroachments to be eligible for the regularisation of encroachments below 3 acres.

Forest plus own land

“Father, mother, son, daughter and brother have divided their encroachment of forest land and patta (own) land, with an intention to reduce the extent to less than 3 acres (forest + patta land). As a consequence of the government’s order, encroachment has increased and the entire eviction process has been stopped,” he said, urging the government to withdraw the 2015 order.

Advocate Veerendra Patil, who served the petition to the office of the minister as well as the deputy director general of forests, ministry of environment, forest and climate change (MoEF&CC) and others, said the government order had created multiple problems. 

“There are cases in which tens of acres of forest land is encroached, but registered as less than three acres owned by several individuals within the same house. As a result, encroachment cases have doubled in vulnerable forests of Shivamogga, Chikkamagaluru and other districts. Thousands of cases that are currently counted as below-three-acre holders will be proven to be above three acres. It’s a scam,” he said.

Minister’s direction

Khandre, who looked into the petition, has issued a direction to the additional chief secretary of the department to examine the matter. “The letter seeks to include patta (own) land while measuring encroachments. Consider the petition and take necessary action,” he said.