Environment lawyer asks Karnataka minister Eshwar Khandre to increase jail term in forest encroachment cases

Veerendra R Patil, an environment lawyer, wrote to the minister last week requesting that a provision should also be made to register online FIRs and the same should be uploaded online.

“It will help environmentalists and common citizens to see the number of FIRs against each case of forest offence at one place. With this, we will also get to know the number of chargesheets that have been filed against the FIRs. This will make the process more transparent. Once the FIR is uploaded, it will decrease the probability of tampering with the FIRs,” he added.

In September this year, Khandre had said there is a need to facilitate registration of FIRs in Forest Offence Cases. He had sought the opinion of the Additional Chief Secretary (forest, ecology and environment) in this regard.

A copy of the representation, which is with indianexpress.com, alleged that in Sagar division, which comes under Shivamogga circle, there are over 28,422 encroachment cases in respect of 43,577 acre of forest land.

“All forest officers are silent about the encroachment of forest land. Neither are the encroachers being evicted nor are the eviction orders being passed,” Patil said.

In Shivamogga district, according to the statistics shared by the Forest department, over 81,502 acre of the forest land is encroached. Patil mentioned in the representation that though the state government has notified 36,122.86 hectare of forest land in Shivamogga circle, only 2,52,482.51 hectare has been mutated in its name.

In his representation, Patil has also mentioned that in the Sharavathy Rehabilitation Scheme, encroachers have encroached more forest lands than the extent of land they lost during the implementation of the Sharavathy Valley Hydroelectric Project in the 1960s.

“There are families who, despite being allotted land and compensated with money in lieu of their lost land due to the hydro electric project, had applied in Sharavathy Rehabilitation Scheme and made illegal claims over the forest land,” he said.

The Union Environment Ministry this year has rejected the Karnataka government’s proposal to de-reserve 9,129 acre of forest land which were released from the year 1958 to 1969 to rehabilitate families which were affected due to the Sharavathy Valley Hydro Electric Project. These forest lands fall in different survey numbers of Shivamogga and Uttara Kannada districts.

Patil said states like Bihar and Andhra Pradesh have amended their Forest Act and made Forest Offence Cases cognizable offences. “This gives power to the Range Forest Officers (RFO) to book the culprits and investigate the case without asking for permission from the magistrate. Many offences in Karnataka under various sections of the Karnataka Forest Act are non-cognizable and the RFO would require permission from the jurisdictional magistrate to proceed with the investigation,” he added.

Patil requested Khandre to direct the RFOs to file a chargesheet once the FIRs are filed. “It is seen that once the FIR is filed, the chargesheet is not filed by the RFOs. What’s the point of filing FIRs if chargesheets are not filed?” he asked.