Kannada film star Yash’s ‘Toxic’ movie lands in controversy over felling of trees in Bengaluru

Originally declared as a reserved forest in a gazette notification, the land was given to the HMT without any formal denotification. Citing the Supreme Court’s stance that “once a forest, always a forest unless denotified”, Khandre stated that the area technically remains a forest.

His push to reclaim the land has sparked opposition from Union Minister of Heavy Industries and Steel, H D Kumaraswamy, who asserts that the HMT legally owns the property.

Originally declared as a reserved forest in a gazette notification, the land was given to the HMT without any formal denotification. (Google Earth screengrab)

Khandre’s letter further noted that the HMT has been renting the land for commercial purposes, including filming a production titled Toxic. He called for a comparison of satellite images to assess the extent of deforestation and to verify if any permissions were granted. If trees were cut without clearance, Khandre requested that charges be filed for forest law violations.

Toxic, a Kannada action thriller movie, is directed by Geetu Mohandas with Yash in the lead role. It is expected to be released in April next year.

The 599 acre had been designated as a reserved forest in May 1896 and 1901. (Google Earth screengrab)

Last Friday, the Forest department took the first step by regaining possession of five acre of the 599 acre of land in the Peenya plantation survey number 1 and 2.

The 599 acre had been designated as a reserved forest in May 1896 and 1901. But the Forest department says that the land was never denotified as non-forest though HMT claimed the ownership to sell 165 acre of land to government and private players.

The state government has said that it would recover the land and turn it into a Cubbon Park-like green space in northern Bengaluru.