With Assembly elections around the corner, a miracle seems to have descended upon thousands of families who have lived with insecurity in the fringes of forests.
When Chief Minister Siddaramaiah’s whirlwind tour of the State makes a stop in Shivamogga district on Saturday, the first of the 22,698 families displaced by the Sharavati Hydel Power Project in 1963 will finally get rights over their “rehabilitated” land.
- 1963–1964: Sharavati Hydroelectric Project and Linganmakki dam constructed
- 300 sq. km of land submerged
- 22,698 families displaced
- Families rehabilitated on 13,067 acres of forest land
- Displaced community not given Records of Rights, Tenancy, Crop and Cultivation (RTC) documents which establishes ownership of land
- 2016: State government approved denotification of 7,459 acres of forest land to be handed over to the Revenue Department and these families
- January 6, 2017: 650 families to be given RTCs during the Sadhana Samavesha of the Congress
During the Sadhana Samavesha programme, land ownership rights would be given to as many as 650 families, a first for a community of the displaced who have waited for half a century.
These families are part of a community that was rehabilitated on 13,067 acres of forest land. In the decades since, they were not given ownership rights or title deeds, leaving them stranded in their own land. “We could not get crop loans for the land, or even mortgage our land,” said Sheshappa, a farmer from Ripponpet village. Moreover, with the Department of Forests strengthening their encroachment drives, these “document-less” owners of the land were under the scanner. “We had no security over our own land. We could be displaced at any point,” he said.
On what caused the delay over the years, administrators throw up multiple reasons: confusion over land boundaries, difficulties in identifying the genuine displaced and “encroachers”, and declaration of these allocated forest land as Shettyhalli or Sharavati wildlife sanctuaries.
It was only recently that the State government decided to denotify 7,459 acres of forest land in the area and hand it over to the Revenue Department. Of this, 6,459 acres of land has been denotified so far.
“In the first phase, land ownership will be conferred to 650 families by the Chief Minister on Saturday, while the remaining families will get the ownership rights in phases,” said H.K. Krishnamurthy, Assistant Commissioner, Shivamogga sub-division.
While Forest Department officials were given a deadline of June 2017 to denotify all identified land, proposals continue to be sent. The deadline, said officials, was tentatively by March — or just before the election schedule is announced.
Congress is eyeing a significant political benefit from the expedited process. B. Ramesh Hegde, spokesperson of the Shivamogga District Congress Committee, said the exercise could be possible only through Revenue Minister Kagodu Thimmappa who is also in-charge Minister of the district. “The credit of fulfilling the longstanding demand of the displaced families should go to the Congress government,” he said.
Not everyone is convinced. Chandrashekhar, a displaced farmer at Konandur village, said it was through the apathy of politicians and bureaucrats, that fear of repeated displacement and eviction had persisted for so long. “No politician can take credit after this,” he said.
Impact on forest land
While the rush to secure votes may have seen justice for those displaced by the Sharavati Hydel Power Project, activists believe that encroachers under other schemes are also being given title deeds. During the Saturday’s programme, thousands of families will be given title deeds under Bagair Hukum, Akrama Sakrama, and a few under the Forest Rights Act scheme.
“I can say with confidence that nearly 90% of the applicants have made false claims. Conditions have been violated, but since encroachments are large-scale, politicians hope that their regularisation will positively impact their chances in the elections,” said Akhilesh Chippali, a wildlife activist from the region.
For instance, a Right to Information document obtained by activists in the region, Hosanagara taluk itself has seen 2,054 acres being distributed for Bagair Hukum cultivators. “Our verification on the ground showed that these are fresh encroachments,” said Mr. Chippali. Under Akrama Sakrama, where houses built before 2012 can be regularised, the district has seen a flurry of new constructions, including some just in the foundation stage, being regularised, he said.
Forest Department officials who have worked there said there was “immense pressure” to regularise encroachments or drop cases. Shivamogga itself has over 95,518 Forest Rights Act cases, with just 2,506 applications accepted, and nearly 40,000 pending. “Encroachers use the Forest Rights Act route to occupy land. Once they file an application, we cannot take action to evict them. This application remains pending before a committee of local officials. Our hands are tied, and any action to evict is met with societal and political backlash,” said an officer.
With over 4,100 sq. km of forest land, the green cover in Shivamogga district remains the most stressed in the State. The Forest Survey of India state of forest report showed that Shivamogga has lost 203 sq. km. of forest land — or nearly seven times more than the second worst district, Bengaluru Urban.
