a day ago
Minister for denotifying forest land granted before notifying under Section 4 of forest Act
Forest Minister Eshwar Khandre has said the State government will submit a proposal to the Centre and seek denotification of land parcles that were granted for cultivation before they were notified as per Section 4 of the Karnataka Forest Act, 1963.
The Minister gave this assurance to elected representatives of the Chikkamagaluru district who met him in Bengaluru on Friday. This measure will help those people who have been cultivating such land for several decades without the rights of ownership.
Preliminary step
The elected representatives of Chikkamagaluru raised the issue of people who have been cultivating land parcels notified under Section 4. The State government has the power to notify a piece of land as per Section 4 of the Act, which is the preliminary step in declaring a reserved forest.
Over the decades, vast tracts of land across the State, including Chikkamagaluru, have been notified under Section 4, but never declared as a reserved forest as per Section 17 of the Act, which is the final step. People who were granted such land before the notification have either cultivated or built houses there over the decades with no rights over the properties.
Responding to their pleas, the Minister said the government would approach the Supreme Court with a plea as well in this regard. In several cases, land had been notified under Section 4 of the Act but remained at that stage without completing the process with a final notification as per Section 17.
'Approaching the Centre and the Supreme Court is inevitable, as denotifying such land is impossible as per the provisions of the Forest Conservation Act, 1980,' the Minister said.
Buffer zone
The elected representatives also opposed notifying 10 km around the sloth bear sanctuary in Arsikere taluk as a buffer zone. The residents of villages in Chikkagmaluru district would be affected by the move, they argued. The Minister said a proposal had been submitted to reduce it to 1 km and the issue would be resolved soon.
Legislators T.D. Raje Gowda, H.D. Thammaiah, Nayana Motamma, K.S. Anand, G.H. Srinivas, and senior officers of the Forest Department and Chikkamagluru district administration were present at the meeting.
