Eshwar Khandre | Photographic credit:
The Minister of Forest ESHwar Khandre said that the state government would submit a proposal to the Center and seek to designate the land landed for cultivation before they were announced under Section 4 of the Lesnataka Act of 1963.
The Minister gave this certainty to the elected representatives of the Chikkamagalur district who met him on Friday in Bengalur. This measure will help those people who have grown this land for several decades without property rights.
Preliminary step
Elected representatives of Chikkamagalur raised the question of people who cultivated land announced according to Section 4.
Over the course of the decade, according to Section 4, huge events of land throughout the state, including Chikkamagalur, were announced, but never declared a reserved forest under Section 17 of the Act, which is the last step. People who were granted such land before the announcement have either cultivated houses without real estate rights over the decades.
In response to their requests, the Minister stated that the government would approach the Supreme Court in this respect. In several cases, the land was informed according to Section 4 of the Act, but remained at this stage without completing the process with the final announcement according to Section 17.
“It is approaching the center and the Supreme Court is inevitable, because the designation of such land is impossible under the provisions of the Forest Protection Act of 1980,” the Minister said.
Memory zone
The elected representatives also opposed the announcement of 10 km around the shrine of sloths in Arsikere Taluk as a bumper zone. The inhabitants of the villages in the Chikkagmalur district would be affected by this step, they claimed. The Minister said that a proposal to reduce it to 1 km was submitted and the problem will be solved early.
At the meeting were the lawmakers of TD Raje Gowd, HD Thammaia, Nayana Motamm, KS Anand, GH Srinivas and Higher Forest Office and Chikkamaglur District Administration.
Published – 6 June 2025 9:25
