Environment ministry asks Karnataka government to take action on dropping of land from deemed forest list

Kan, jungle, soppinabetta are patches of minor evergreen forests in the Western Ghats of Karnataka. Kumki lands are government lands that are adjacent to agricultural lands.

“I am directed to enclose herewith a representation dated February 10 received from Veerendra R Patil, Shivamogga. In this regard it is informed that the issues raised in the representation are related to dropping certain categories of land such kan, jungle, sopinabetta, kumki in deemed forest list. As the issues raised in the representation pertains to the State government, it is requested to take necessary action as per extant rules and regulations,” the order dated March 31 from the environment ministry read.

In 1996, the Supreme Court in its interim order issued direction for the cessation of all non-forestry activities within the forest area without the prior approval of the Centre and asserted that the word ‘forest’ must be understood according to its dictionary meaning and any area in the government records irrespective of ownership will be regarded as ‘forest’. Complying with the directions, the expert committee appointed by the Karnataka government identified 912,789.96 hectares of ‘deemed forests’ in the state in 1997.

Since a number of proposed projects in deemed forest areas had to be referred under Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980, for clearance, the state government in 2015 decided to review the deemed forest list status and brought the extent down to 498,991.93 hectares. On March 13, 2018, the government wrote to the Central Empowered Committee of the Supreme Court to bring the extent of deemed forest further down to 330,186.996 hectares.

Patil explained that the officials from the forest department had deliberately dropped several areas of the statutory forest though they had proper government records including village map and land records.

“The government in 1997 also excluded strip plantations, roadside plantations, canal bank plantations from the list of deemed forests. Dropping several areas of deemed forests and deliberately showing the less extent will only safeguard encroachers. Kan lands of Shivamogga are high-quality wooded areas in the Western Ghats and need to be protected,” he added.

Meanwhile, additional chief secretary Jawaid Akhtar has not responded to calls.