At a time when encroachment of forests has become a major challenge, the Karnataka Forest Department’s Hassan division has doled out over 20 acres of deemed forest for quarrying.
Following a Supreme Court order, the state government has assigned the label ‘deemed forest’ to forest and gomala lands.
Karnataka had last year placed before the Supreme Court its decision to declare 3.30 lakh hectares across the state as 'deemed forest'.
The DCF, Forest Mobile Squad, Hassan, has written to the Additional Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (Vigilance) along with documents. The letter said that the DCF of the Hassan territorial division has granted a no objection certificate (NOC) for quarrying on 21 acres in Channarayapatna, thereby disowning the forest land.
Documents show that the Hassan division DCF had on March 31, 2023, granted NOC for quarrying in six parcels (totally measuring 21 acres) of Survey number 224/P1 in Dadighatta village of Shravanabelagola hobli in Channarayapatna taluk. To a specific query by the Mines and Geology department, the DCF replied that the land sought for quarrying “does not belong to any forest area”.
The letter to the vigilance cell also contained an extract of the affidavit submitted to the Supreme Court by the government of Karnataka for declaring 50.30 hectares (124 acres) of land in Didaghatta as 'deemed forest'. As per the RTC records of the Revenue Department, the 124.14-acre stretch has been marked as 'gomala'.
In June 2022, the government has told the Revenue Department that “the lands that have been assigned as deemed forests shall not be granted for any other purpose”.
“The gomala lands were endorsed as deemed forest in 2014. The proposal to take up quarrying in the area was received in 2019. Two officials who served as DCFs in Hassan had not cleared it. However, DCF Harish has granted NOC within two months after taking charge,” the letter by Mobile Squad DCF N Ravindrakumar said.
The letter urged the vigilance cell to invoke provisions of Forest (Conservation) Act and Prevention of Corruption Act against the DCF for criminal misconduct.
DH reached out to DCF Harish for a clarification. The official initially said that the said survey number has more land (than 124.2 acres) in the older RTC. When it was pointed out that the older records till 2018 (prior to the quarry proposal) have the same number, the official said: “I will verify the records again tomorrow (Monday),” he said.
Illegal grant of forest land, which is different from encroachment, has led to loss of 60,000 acres of forest since the 1950s. The Forest Department has failed to take up the matter with the Revenue Department despite several complaints.