Wednesday, Oct 23, 2002
Wednesday, Oct 23, 2002 |
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Karnataka
By Pramod Mellegatti
The Supreme Court, on a public interest litigation, ordered that all encroachments on forest land in the country be removed. Responding to this order, the State Government gave an undertaking to the court that it would complete the task of evicting the encroachers by the end of May 2003. It is estimated that if the order is to be implemented, nearly 25,000 families cultivating around 20,000 hectares of forest land may have to be evicted in Shimoga District alone. Besides, a considerable extent of the forest land proposed to be utilised by the Government for the construction of public buildings and residential colonies, apart from growing agricultural and horticultural crops, may have to be restored to the Forest Department if the effective implementation of the order is to be ensured. Interestingly enough, Jnana Sahyadri — the Kuvempu University campus — near the B.R. Project is located in a portion of the Bhadra Wildlife Sanctuary. It remains to be seen if such buildings located on forest land will be shifted elsewhere. The political parties have not been found wanting in making use of the situation if the suddenness with which they have begun their one-upmanship exercise is any indication. While the Janata Dal groups have made common cause on the issue and roped in the Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha (Puttannaiah group) for their protest demonstration to be held on November 2, the Shimoga MP and former Chief Minister, S. Bangarappa, has been holding a series of public meetings to enlighten the farmers about the consequences of the court order. He completed his second round of meetings on Monday at Tirthahalli, Hosnagar, and Sagar. He launched his protest demonstration in his native Sorab taluk on October 4, and at Ayanur and Shikaripur on October 13. During the meetings, Mr. Bangarappa said he was committed to protecting the interests of bagair hukum farmers who have been cultivating forest land for a long time. He stressed the need to amend the Forest Conservation Act, 1980 to protect the farmers. The Janata Parivar leaders, while seeking the immediate rehabilitation of the bagair hukum cultivators in case their eviction became inevitable, held the State Government responsible for the predicament. As the former Hosnagar MLA and Janata Dal (S) leader, B. Swamyrao, put it, "It is a do-or-die battle for the encroachers, most of whom were displaced from the areas that were submerged by the hydel projects such as Sharavathi, Varahi, Chakra, and Savehaklu." He said that the families from the submerged areas were literally loaded on to lorries and dumped in forest areas with no basic amenities. "It is ironical that the Government is asking these families to vacate the land they are cultivating." The General Secretary of the Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha (Puttannaiah group), H.R. Basavarajappa, faulted the Government for having given an undertaking to the Supreme Court to remove all encroachments by the end of May 2003 without considering whether it was possible to do so. "The Government should have preferred an appeal to a larger Bench of the Supreme Court to seek relief," Mr. Basavarajappa said. A new non-political outfit, District Bagair Hukum Cultivators' Association, has decided to associate itself with the protest by holding a separate programme here on October 28 in association with some other non-political organisations. Similar demonstrations are also being held in the neighbouring districts of Chikmagalur and Uttara Kannada.
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