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Since the enactment of the Forest Conservation Act, 1980, till March this year, in the ten subdivisions of the Shivamogga forest circle, 203 eviction orders issued under Section 64A of the Karnataka Forest Act were challenged before the Appellate Authority, the Karnataka Forest Department said in an RTI.
The eviction orders were passed by the state forest department. While the Appellate Authority had disposed of 131 appeals out of the 203, sources in Shivamogga said that the forest department is yet to evict those whose applications were rejected.
Section 64A provides for eviction of an unauthorised occupant from forest land. These orders are issued by the forest officers of the rank of Assistant Conservator of Forest. Post the issuance of eviction notice, the aggrieved person can appeal before the Appellate Authority. However, once the application is disposed of by the authority, the aggrieved party can approach the High Court.
The RTI was filed by environmental lawyer Veerendra Patil who said, “It is often seen that very few people approach the High Court for further appeal. However, despite the disposal of applications by the authority, the forest department never carries out eviction of the encroachers.”
The RTI also reveals that though the forest department has registered more than 315 FIRs in cases of forest encroachments in Shivamogga, it has not filed a single chargesheet in these cases.
According to the state forest department, over 50,579.53 acre of forest land in Shivamogga has been encroached. Over 1,77,997.58 acre of forest land has been encroached across Karnataka.
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