As many as 2,04,442 acres of forest land have been encroached upon in the State and there are 1,10,626 cases related to it.
According to a notice issued by K.S. Saibaba, Secretary, Forest, Environment and Wildlife, on March 13, encroachment on forest land was in violation of Section 24 of the Karnataka Forest Act, 1963, and action has been taken to clear such illegal occupations as per Section 64 (A) of the Act.
The notice said that action had been taken to clear the encroachments after the High Court of Karnataka gave directions in this regard following filing of two public interest litigation petitions. As per the Traditional Forest Dwellers Act, 2006, if a member of the tribal community encroached forest land and applied for regularisation, action should not be taken till verification was completed.
Forest encroachment cases of 14,848.83 hectares filed before April 27, 1978, could be regularised under conditions as mentioned by the Union Ministry for Environment and Forests in the letter no.8-50/95 dated May 15, 1996. The State government has directed the department not to take action on cases of forest land encroachments below three acres till further notice.
