A compound wall has become the stage for a showdown between the Forest Department and Indian Air Force officials.
On Monday evening, a team of five forest officials demanding a halt to construction work at Jarakhabande Reserve Forest bordering Jalahalli Air Force Station. But they had to back off when they were surrounded by over 50 persons from the station. “Some were armed and threatened to arrest us. They asked us to leave or face the consequences,” said a senior forest official.
According to the officials, the area was notified as a forest in 1939. “It becomes a violation of conservation laws when construction is taken up without permission from the department,” said an official.
A Forest Offence Case (FOC No. 9) has been booked by the Forest Department against two IAF officers as well as the contractor undertaking the work. The case was booked under the Karnataka Forest Act 1963 and Karnataka Forest Rules, 1969.
Forest officials said the IAF will be asked to provide documents to prove that they did not encroach on a reserve forest. It must be noted that a Chief Secretary-led committee – with a tenure of two years – has been formed to see the legal status of various institutes and areas in the city that have come up on areas that had been notified as forests nearly a century ago. A spokesperson for the armed forces said, as a policy, they do not undertake construction or claim any property which is not theirs. “We have the documents for the land, and we will take it up with the authorities concerned,” he said.
According to the officials concerned, the area was notified as a
forest in 1939
