After years of stagnation, the contentious process of rehabilitation has been picking up pace in the Kudremukh National Park. However, even six years after the State government announced packages for forest-dwellers to shift out of the park — which is pending final notification as a tiger reserve — less than half of the identified families have sought rehabilitation.
Of 1,382 families living in the park limits in the districts of Dakshina Kannada, Udupi and Chikmagalur, only around 577 applications have been received. Of this, just 99 families have been relocated.
‘Improved in last two years’Though KNP officials admit the process of rehabilitation, was slow, they claimed the package had been gaining popularity in the last two years, with 46 families being rehabilitated.
“Forest-dwellers are warming up to the idea. The only constraint is the funds allotted yearly,” said Vinay Luthra, Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (Wildlife). The department has spent nearly Rs. 34 crore in the past two years, compared to less than Rs. 8 crore in the years before.
The process has divided hamlets that lie in the forest limits; with tensions erupting in an alleged Maoist attack on an NGO worker involved in the rehabilitation in November 2013.
The Forest Department has proposed allocating a minimum compensation of Rs. 10 lakh — as mandated for a tiger project — to enable small landholders to move out of the forest reaches.
