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Karnataka
By Our Staff Correspondent
Mr. Reddy's statement assumes significance in the wake of the agitation by landowners who have formed a "Hakku Pratipadana Samiti" here, demanding that the Government give them the rights over trees grown on their lands. The samiti had prevented timber auctions at the government timber depots in Kushalnagar, Anecad, and Sampaje in Madikeri Forest Division on March 17, 18 and 19, respectively, and threatened to stall the proposed three-day auction at the Thithimathi Timber Depot in Virajpet Forest Division to be held from today. Mr. Reddy, who was joined by the Deputy Conservator of Forests (DCF), Virajpet division, R.K. Srivastava, and the DCF, Madikeri division, G.S. Yadav, invited farmers for talks to find a solution. If the Government passed an order that the rights over the trees belonged to the landowners, the Forest Department would not come into the picture at all. The land tenure had to be determined by the Revenue Department, they said. The protest resorted to by the samiti until the "unredeemed" timber was considered "redeemed," was not correct, they said. Instead, they should adopt a different course and cooperate with the department to hold timber auctions. The prevention of auctions not only brought down government revenue but also affected the prospects of the landowners, whose timber (from both `redeemed' and `unredeemed' tenures) was stocked in the government depots, Mr. Reddy said. Mr. Srivastava said that in the last couple of years, several rules concerning felling and transporting of timber were simplified. The removal of restrictions on felling and transporting of orange trees was one of them. Even before the samiti was formed to demand rights over trees on the unredeemed tenure lands, the Conservator had recommended conferring the rights on the landowners two months ago, he said. Mr. Yadav said that recommendations stemmed from the fact that landowners were increasingly planting silver oak trees in their plantations at the cost of local varieties, which would have an adverse effect on the environment. Therefore, the State Government had been requested to exempt the trees on unredeemed land from seignorage value, and the benefit was passed on to farmers. This move would encourage farmers to grow more local varieties of trees. Earlier, a landowner who deposited timber at the government depot (from the unredeemed tenure) got only 40 per cent of the sale proceeds, with the rest going to the Government. Now, they received 45 per cent of the sale proceeds. The tree owners had to wait for years to receive the amount from the auctions, but now the procedures had been simplified and money was received within a few days. Mr. Reddy said a proposal had been sent to the Principal Chief Conservator of Forests, seeking to de-regulate as many as 40 different species of trees in Kodagu so they could be felled or transported without permission. Orders were being awaited, Mr. Reddy said. The Deputy Conservator of Forests (Social Forestry), Nagaraj, Assistant Conservators of Forests, Ganapathi (Madikeri), and Kumaraswamy (Somwarpet) were present.
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