Bengaluru: Protection of deemed forest takes a beating in State

Bengaluru: Notwithstanding the growing concern over the forest encroachments in the State, the government in January had withdrawn the affidavit fixing 3,30,186.938 hectares as deemed forest land. The State government after wavering through a long tedious process of identifying the deemed forest land at the same time keeping its needs to enhance infrastructure, had confirmed 3,30,186.938 hectares as deemed forest land.

It is learnt from the sources that a strong force in the State is driving the modification of the deemed forest list. 'Bane' and 'Paisari' lands of Coorg, 'Kumki' lands of Dakshina Kannada and 'Kan' lands of Shivamogga are being proposed to be excluded from the list. These are superior quality wooded areas in Western Ghats and have a very important role in soil and water conservation.

Since the government has failed to evict encroachments and prevent deforestation on these lands, there is a huge possibility of losing them completely.

BACKGROUND

In the order dated December 12, 1996 of the Supreme Court of India in a writ petition in Godavarman Thirumalkpad Vs Union of India & others the term forest as per dictionary meaning and the forests recorded in government records were to be included in the broad definition of 'forests' along with notified forests for consideration of any diversion proposal under Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980.

The expert committee appointed by the Government of Karnataka identified 9,12,789.96 hectares of land in the State as deemed forest.

Since the huge forest land became impediment for the State government to sanction projects in the deemed forest land, the irked government in 2015 decided to review the deemed forest list. District, divisional and State level committees were constituted. The reconciliation was done in all the districts and compiled at the State level. In all 51,7848.65 ha was deleted and 10,4050.65 ha was freshly included. The total deemed forest figures were modified as 4,98,991.93 ha.

The reason for reduction was stated as erroneous inclusion of notified forests earlier, areas were without Sy No, inclusion of institutional lands, roads and canal side plantations, utilization of lands for activities of other departments, inclusion of private lands and nearly quarter to two lakh hectare did not fulfill the criteria as the land blocks were less than 2 ha in size or had less than 50 trees per hectare.

"Of the 4,98,991.93 hectares of deemed forests so identified, Statutory Forests burdened with privileges constituted 1,72,814.66 hectares, forests recorded in government records 96,031.35 hectares and forests as per dictionary meaning 2,30,145.92 hectares. After 617.887 hectares of lands in Chikkamagaluru, Udupi and Uttar Kannada districts were deleted and 4,627.555 hectares of land in Belagavi district was added to this extent of deemed forest. The final extent of deemed forest identified and accepted by the State government now stood at 3,30,186.938 hectares," the State government's letter to the Central Empowered Committee (CEC) read.

The State government in 2018 had told the CEC that the 173,022 ha land which did not fulfill the criteria of deemed forests will not be allotted to individuals and institutions and will be utilized for projects of the departments like, infrastructure, Irrigation, social welfare, education and health.

"173022 ha land satisfied the criteria of deemed forests in 1997 and are not satisfying now. What does it mean? There have been encroachments on these lands, leaving now less than 2 ha in the plot. There have been large scale deforestation on these lands resulting in lower tree density and is out of criteria of deemed forests as it does not have even 50 trees per ha," former PCCF of Karnataka B.K. Singh told The Hans India.

The proposal of the State was discussed in the apex court and finally the state had withdrawn the proposal.