Meera Bhardwaj:
Forest officials have recovered and cleared 53 acres of encroached forests in Bhadra Tiger Reserve, Chikkamagaluru district, Karnataka, India. This is the first time that such a big operation of clearance of forest encroachments has been carried out after the declaration of Bhadra Wildlife Sanctuary as a tiger reserve.
Out of 200 acres of encroached forest land in Bhadra Tiger Reserve, 43 acres in Muthodi wildlife range and 10 acres in Hebbe wildlife range has been recovered from encroachers in the last five months.
In continuing operations of recovery of encroached forest lands in Karnataka following the directions of state forest minister Eshwar Khandre, forest officials have cleared encroachments in Kesavina Mane, Survey No. 43 that falls in the core zone of Bhadra Tiger Reserve (BTR).
In fact, 43 acres of forest area falling within the Bhadra Tiger Reserve was encroached by Narendra Pai who is a big land owner owning coffee plantations and estates, resort, bar, school and hospital in Chikkamagaluru district.
It was in 2022-23, a case was registered against Narendra Pai, the encroacher under the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972. As per the ACF Shivaratreshwara Court order, the encroacher was given one month’s time to vacate the forest encroachments after it was proved that the 43 acres of forest land had been encroached.
Since the encroacher did not vacate the forest land, an encroachment clearance operation was conducted in the presence of the department heads starting from May 31 to June 2. The already harvested coffee crop was removed and 43 acres of land was taken into possession by the forest officials.
Apart from this, another 10 acres of encroached forest land in Survey No: 53, Kodhi forest was cleared and recovered in the Hebbe wildlife range of Bhadra Tiger Reserve in the month of January. The encroacher was a local resident and was growing coffee crop which fell within the core area of Bhadra Tiger Reserve.
Speaking to Green Minute, Shivaratreshwara Swami, Assistant Conservator of Forests, Muthodi Sub-division, Bhadra Tiger Reserve said, “Out of 200 acres of encroached forest land, we have recovered 53 acres and still need to recover and clear another 147 acres. There is lot of political influence brought in by the encroachers in Chikkamagaluru district. But we don’t bend to such pressures.”
The Muthodi Sub-division ACF added, “We are following all procedures and this is done after joint survey done by both revenue and forest officials. However, time and again, joint surveys get delayed due to lack of support from the revenue department, thereby, delaying the process of eviction of forest encroachers. In fact, joint surveys take almost 8-10 months. However, the remaining encroachments, we hope to clear soon – this incudes lot of illegal grants and the rest are minimal (under FRA) where people have encroached on 1-2 acres of forest land on the border of BTR.”
Recently, the state Forest Minister Eshwar Khandre had ordered the clearance of forest encroachments and protection of forest and wildlife habitats in the state. This order has helped in speeding up the procedures for clearance of forest encroachments in the state. For many years, there had been a demand from activists to clear the forest encroachments in the Bhadra Tiger Reserve area and some prominent individuals had come forward to participate in these efforts.
Since the Bhadra wildlife Sanctuary falls within the jurisdiction of the Tiger Reserve, there is no room for encroachments here in any way. Welcoming the move, conservationist G Veeresh said, “So far, forest officials have cleared this encroachment despite pressure from all quarters. The department has taken up the encroachment case quickly, and this is a welcome step.”
This operation was carried out under the guidance of Chikkamagaluru Circle CCF, Yashpal Kshirsagar, Bhadra Tiger Reserve and DCF Pulkit Meena while hundreds of forest staff including Zonal Forest Officers Jagadish Medha, Gaurav, and Sudhakar participated in the clearance operations.
According to forest officials, regular process and procedures are being followed for clearing forest encroachments by following the guidelines given by the state forest minister.
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