75,376 forest offence cases pending: Karnataka forest dept annual report
Of 75,376, the department registered 5,808 FOC cases last year alone. FOC cases include encroachment of forest lands, sandalwood, red sandalwood, rosewood theft and wildlife cases such as poaching, smuggling of animals among others.
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The forest department in the report said that in the year 2022-23, it took up strengthening of 1301.66 Km of forest boundaries in the state to prevent encroachments. (File) According to Karnataka Forest Department’s Annual Report (2022-23), 70,312 forest offence cases (FOC) cases are pending for disposal. Till last year, 75,376 FOC were registered with the forest department of which only 5,064 were disposed of till March this year.
The annual report was uploaded on the state forest department’s website earlier this month.
Of 75,376, the department registered 5,808 FOC cases last year alone. FOC cases include encroachment of forest lands, sandalwood, red sandalwood, rosewood theft and wildlife cases such as poaching, smuggling of animals among others.
The forest department in the report said that in the year 2022-23, it took up strengthening of 1301.66 Km of forest boundaries in the state to prevent encroachments.
“Last year an amount of Rs.30 crore was allotted to the programme of works for survey and demarcation and consolidation and fencing of forest lands through compound wall, erection of chain link mesh, barbed wire and fixing of reinforced cement concrete (RCC) pillars. Entire amount of Rs.30 crore has been released and fully utilised at the end of March 2023,” the report said.
“As per the provisions of the Karnataka Forest Manual of the Karnataka Forest Code and circulars issued by the principal chief conservator of forest and head of forest force all the Nodal Officers, Chief Conservator of Forests, Conservator of Forests, Deputy Conservator of Forests and Assistant Conservator of Forests and all executive field staffs have to go for perambulation of forest boundaries and consolidation of forest lands between 3 to 18 of every month,” the report added.
“During this perambulation drive, the Managing Directors of various corporations and concerned forest officers have been directed to take up ground verification regarding forest land leased to various corporations, the forest areas returned to the department by the corporations and allied issues to reconcile the details on a ground truthing basis and the exercise is in progress. During the process of perambulation, the field staff have reported that they have noticed that the boundary stones erected for demarcation of forest boundaries have been damaged, encroachment cases have occurred,” a senior forest officer revealed.
“Various cases are at several courts so there is a pile up of cases of several years,” he added.
According to the statistics presented in the annual report Karnataka witnesses over 1,000 cases of encroachment of forest land every year.
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