Tucked away beside NICE Road junction on Kanakapura Road are the thick woods on a 100-acre plot of land that has become a point of contention between two arms of the State government — the Forest Department and the Roerich & Devika Rani Roerich Estate Board. The resolution to this conflict will impact not only the metro project, but also the long-delayed four-laning of Kanakapura Road.
On August 21, the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) started work on widening Kanakapura Road between NICE Road and Harohalli. Eventually, NH 209 will be widened till the Tamil Nadu border through Chamarajanagar.
However, the plot of land, or Survey Number 38, has thrown a spanner in the works. Records available with the Roerich & Devika Rani Roerich Estate Board show the land is its. However, like Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Ltd. (BMRCL) — which is looking for 3.3 acres to build an entry to its depot, NHAI has applied to the Forest Department for the land.
In its application to the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) two weeks ago, NHAI sought 4.66 acres, including 2.8 acres in the contentious Survey Number 38. The application lists the land as ‘Uttarahalli-Manavarthi Kavalu State forest’.
“This land, covering 100 acres, has been deforested and has been in the possession of [Roerich estate] since 1954. It was only given to the Forest Department to develop the tree park. In such a case, diversion of this land will have to be through the Supreme Court as it had ordered in 2011 that the estate land cannot be diverted for any other use mentioned by them,” said G.H. Puttahalagaiah, CEO of the estate board.
Forest officials have maintained that a 1916 gazette notification declares the land as a State forest and there are no “records with them” on the land being deforested.
More confusion
It isn’t just this land that has led to confusion in the NHAI. The authority started the notification process in 2012 and eventually issued the final notification for nearly 26,280 sq.m. of estate land. However, during acquisition, land records mentioned it as “government land” and not estate land. The latter is protected by a 1996 State government Act and a Supreme Court order.
“The documents are being changed to reflect the ownership of the estate and the process should be completed within a month. After that, we will inform NHAI about the legal process for acquisition,” said Mr. Puttahalagaiah. “We are not against public projects. But we want to protect our land and want the agencies to go through the proper route.”
NHAI officials, who said work on the road widening project would pick up in the coming months, said they were aware of the issue. “This came to our notice recently. We are following up and examining it though final notification on the land has been issued,” an official said.
A dream yet to come true
An international tourist centre on the lines of the famous Amsterdam museum dedicated to the painter Van Gogh, a rose garden, and an urban forest. These were the promises made when the Supreme Court passed a decree in 2011 on the 468-acre Roerich Estate.
So far, a five-acre patch of rose garden has been developed by the Horticulture Department, which was originally mandated to develop 25 acres. According to officials, with no fencing so far, the department is not keen on expanding the park for the fear of cattle grazing. Fencing, however, has been debated considering the land is an elephant corridor and fences would obstruct the movement of animals.
Though the Cabinet has approved ₹25 crore for setting up a museum, work has not started. There has been some effort on afforestation. The Forest Department has already developed 100 acres as a tree park, and the estate board is planning to expand this to other areas.
