Forest land encroached by BDA for Kempegowda Layout recovered

Forest officials on Thursday reclaimed a section of the Kempegowda Layout's main road, constructed by the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA), encroaching upon two acres of reserved forest.

The officials had undertaken a similar drive a few days ago, reclaiming 5.5 acres of the Turahalli forest land.

Last month, Bengaluru Urban’s Deputy Conservator of Forests (DCF) wrote to the BDA commissioner, highlighting the encroachment of 1 acre and 38 guntas of forest land, and requesting him to instruct his officials to vacate that area.

The disputed land is a part of a 525-acre 2-gunta expanse in Sulikere, Kommaghatta, and Maragondanahalli villages, designated as the 'Sulikere Reserve Forest' by way of a government order, dated September 3, 1934.

The discord initially surfaced in December 2019 during an inspection by the Kaggalipura Range Forest Officer (RFO) in response to a BDA proposal to divert forest land for the construction of a major arterial road in Phase 1 of the Nadaprabhu Kempegowda Layout and roads in Block 8 of the layout.

The RFO had then filed a forest offence case against BDA officials for encroaching into the reserved forest. Officials also referred to the Sulikere Reserve Forest map that had been created after a joint survey with the Revenue Department.

Bengaluru Urban DCF N Ravindrakumar said that the forest land was reclaimed after consulting with the BDA chief engineer concerned. “The BDA was given full opportunity since the filing of the forest offence case,” he said.

“The chief engineer concerned was informed about the violation. We have now recovered the area and planted bamboo saplings for visible demarcation of the forest land,” Ravindrakumar added.

The recovery comes after the removal of BDA's encroachment into 5 acres 29 guntas of reserved forest in Badamanavarthe Kaval on August 21, where BDA engineers had created and allotted sites within the reserved forest area.