The joint survey planned by the Revenue Department and the Forest Department to settle the long-pending land ownership dispute with farmers has started in Koorachundu village. The resurvey will mainly cover the land owned by 61 farmers in the village.
Revenue Department officials said the survey was expected to cover around 50 acres of land, illegally taken into possession by farmers along the forest region. They said a clear picture on the extent of land to be recovered would be ready by the end of December this year.
The survey will cover regions such as Chakkittappara and Kanthalad, where farmers were accused of possessing large acres of cleared forest land for agriculture. Most of their land tax had been denied by the local village offices as the Forest Department raised objection over ownership.
Meanwhile, farmers in the villages said they were being considered as encroachers without any justification. They said the Revenue Department had collected land tax from them for several years.
A settler farmer from Kanthalad said the legal battle between the Forest Department and farmers had been spoiling their peace for several years. No one was able to sell their property or take bank loan due to the ownership dispute, he lamented.
K. Johnson, a farmers’ organisation leader, said the Forest Department was raising baseless allegations to evict farmers from their property. “How can a farmer simply leave the agriculture land he cultivated for more than three or four decades in the name of technicalities?” he asked.
Meanwhile, Forest Department sources said they prepared the list of encroached land on the basis of clear Revenue documents.
