Bharatiya Janata Party MLA from Belagavi rural Sanjay B. Patil strongly opposed the State government’s alleged moves to transfer 51 acres and 18 guntas of gairan (grazing) lands under Badas (K.H.) in his constituency to the police department, stating that it would deprive the farmers of the green fodder for their cattle.
Mr. Patil submitted a memorandum to the deputy commissioner N. Jayaram after staging protest here on Monday. He said there were totally 642 agriculture-land holding farmers in the village, 400 of which were marginal holdings and the rest small holding with less than 5 acres of land. These farmers, who have also taken up dairy activities to support their livelihood, largely depend on the grazing lands for green and dry fodder.
He said there were 617 bullocks and cows, 580 buffaloes, more than 500 sheep and goats. The villages also houses two units of Karnataka Milk Federation (Nandini) and two private milk procurement centres.
Mr. Patil said taking away the grazing land would directly affect the supply of fodder for cattle and adversely impact farmers’ incomes, who were already reeling under drought conditions. At a time when the government itself was struggling hard to provide green fodder to the cattle owing to drought conditions, the moves to transfer 51 acres of gairan lands has come as shock to the villagers, who would fight tooth and nail to protect these lands as it was a question of their survival and food for their cattle.
He urged the government to give up the idea of taking away land meant for farmers and their cattle.
