Quarry jolt to 400 acres of Hassan deemed forest

The Forest Department is staring at quarries blasting through 400 acres of deemed forests in Hassan, a district troubled by man-animal conflicts and identified by Isro as a landslide-prone zone.

Documents accessed by DH show that quarries in Arakalgud and Channarayapatna taluks, covering a total of 400.16 acres of forest land, were ordered to suspend operations in February 2024. This came after a forest department notification on May 5, 2022, declared these land parcels as ‘deemed forest’.

Once land is declared as forest, any proposals to use it for non-forest purposes have to be approved by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change. Accordingly, leaseholders were instructed to submit their proposals to the ministry. 

However, in a letter dated July 18, 2024, the senior scientist of the Mines and Geology Department for Hassan district told quarry licence holders to resume mining. The letter cited a June 26, 2024, decision by the District Task Force, headed by the Deputy Commissioner, permitting the resumption of quarrying.

The letter said that several ongoing quarries and new quarry proposals were located on land with survey numbers fully or partly declared as deemed forest. “The task force committee has decided to allow quarrying in such areas to continue until the completion of a joint survey by the Forest Department, Department of Mines and Geology, and Revenue Department, and the mutation of the lands into the Forest Department within three months,” it said.

Among the four quarry licence holders instructed to resume operations is MC Rangaswamy, whose petition to resume quarrying was dismissed by the High Court of Karnataka on April 2, 2024.

In 2022, the HC directed the Department of Mines and Geology to reconsider quarry applications, citing its 2019 order that “there is no concept of deemed forest land”, which had raised concerns about large-scale destruction of green patches. While deciding the petition by MC Rangaswamy and another, the court was informed that the Supreme Court, in August 2023, accepted the identification of 3.3 lakh hectares of land in Karnataka as deemed forest. “It is not known how the Department of Mines issued such a letter after the April 2024 order. The letter is tantamount to contempt of court,” a senior official in the department told DH.

In June 2022, the state government directed that lands designated as deemed forests shall not be granted for any other purpose. However, officials believe that mining is permitted in deemed forests in several districts. Disturbance in Hassan forests, part of a key elephant corridor, has increased man-elephant conflicts. Hassan also ranks 53rd among the 147 landslide-prone districts flagged by the Isro’s National Remote Sensing Centre.

Asked about the violation, Forest, Ecology and Environment Minister Eshwar B Khandre said mining activities inside deemed forests cannot be allowed. “We have already notified the lands as deemed forests. Mining cannot be allowed in such areas. I will issue directions to stop such activities,” he said.

Highlights - Against HC order Quarries in Arakalgud and Channarayapatna ordered to suspend ops in Feb 2024 Mining dept, in a letter dated July 18, says licence holders can resume mining. This approval violates an HC order.