The Forest Cell of the Greater Bengaluru Authority (GBA) has registered an FIR against the Embassy Group for illegal felling of trees in the Kadugodi Reserve Forest area. This is the second case related to felling of trees in the same forest stand since 2007. The latest FIR relates to felling of 110 trees.
According to officials, around 400 fully grown trees were documented in the 78-acre forest land during a survey conducted in 2006–07. This figure did not include smaller trees, saplings and saplings, which also fall under the definition of “tree” under the Karnataka Tree Protection Act, 1976, which classifies any woody plant with a diameter of at least 5.5 cm and a height of 1 m as a tree.
The first case of illegal felling of trees was detected in 2007 when the Karnataka Forest Department registered a case against Concord India Private Ltd., a company then associated with the land. A fine of ₹1 lakh was imposed, after which the felling of the trees was reportedly stopped for some time.
In 2020, the erstwhile BBMP forest cell issued permission to cut 42 trees in the area. Forest officials said the permit was issued by circumventing legal safeguards, as the law mandates public advertisement and deliberation of proposals involving the removal of more than 50 trees.
Using this permit, hundreds of trees were reportedly felled between 2022 and 2025, exceeding the permitted number. The investigation also found that no permits had been obtained to transport the timber.
This comes amid an ongoing battle over the ownership and status of the larger Kadugodi forest land. Embassy Group started work on the IT park on 78.54 acres of the same land four months after the forest department decided to file an appeal in the Supreme Court to reclaim 449 acres of forest land in Kadugodi worth over ₹22,000 crore.
The embassy group was not available for comment.
Published – 17 Jan 2026 21:46 IST