Karnataka government seeks action against two serving IFS officers for allowing Bengaluru land worth Rs 14,000 crore to be declared ‘not a forest’

The controversy pertains to 599 acres of land in a plantation in the Peenya Jalahalli region, which was declared a forest in 1896 and was later transferred to the public sector HMT in the 1960s to create industrial infrastructure through a donation deed by the Bengaluru district collector.

In recent years, large portions of the land given to HMT by the forest department for industrial purposes have allegedly been used to facilitate major real estate projects through the connivance of state and central government officials.

Over the last year, a dispute has arisen over the land between the Union heavy industries ministry headed by former Karnataka CM and Janata Dal (Secular) leader H D Kumaraswamy – who is looking at monetising the land to resuscitate the fortunes of HMT – and the state forest department which is trying to recover the HMT land by arguing that it remains a forest land.

“This plantation is owned by HMT. It is illegal for the organisation to sell to government departments/organisations and private individuals. However, the fact that forest officials did not make any attempt to recover the land and, without even drawing the attention of the Cabinet, submitted an Interim Application (IA) to the Supreme Court seeking denotification in 2020 is a cause for doubt,” the Karnataka forest minister had stated earlier this year.

Last year, in November, the state government had issued notices to the forest officials concerned over the filing of the IA in the SC on the HMT forest land.

In January this year, the state government had ordered that since 281 acres of the 599 acres of land donated to HMT is vacant land “without any building”, the forest department must take possession of the vacant forest land.

Among the forest officers against whom action has been sought by the state government is IFS officer R Gokul, who was whistle blower in the illegal mining scam in Karnataka in 2009-11 – when as deputy conservator of forests he reported the large scale exports through the Belekeri port of iron ore illegally excavated from the forests of Bellary by a mining mafia.

The other officers are former forest secretary Sandeep Dave, a retired IAS officer, retired IFS officer Vijay Kumar Gogo, and serving senior IFS officer Smita Bijoor.

The state government has also taken umbrage over the fact that IFS officer Gokul – who is a chief conservator – has written to the CBI saying he is being targeted by the Congress government for bringing evidence in the illegal mining cases being prosecuted by the CBI against some political leaders in Karnataka.

The land granted to HMT “is alienated, real estate companies have built hundreds of flats. Shooting of serials and films is going on. The land is being used for commercial purposes. How this was allowed is the question,” Forest Minister Khandre said this week.

“The forest land in the possession of HMT is the property of seven crore Kannadigas, and a few officials have applied for denotification without even bringing this to the attention of the then forest minister and without seeking prior approval of the Cabinet,” Khandre added.

“Notices have been issued to four officials, including two retired and two serving officials, and a recommendation for action has been sent to the chief minister,” he further said.

The forest minister said that the IA submitted by the state in 2020 (during the tenure of the BJP government in Karnataka) contained false information since it said that the land given to HMT had lost its forest nature.

The information on the filing of the IA in the SC was not brought to the notice of even a high-level committee headed by the chief secretary, which was created in 2015 to resolve the issue of forest land held by institutions in Bengaluru, the forest minister claimed.

He said that just 25 days after the filing of the IA in the SC, on July 15, 2020, it was decided that the denotification of forest areas can be recommended to the state cabinet by the additional chief secretary of the forest, environment, and biology department.

The forest minister said that a file had been submitted to Chief Minister Siddaramaiah to suspend IFS officer Gokul and to conduct a departmental inquiry against the other serving officer.

While the Karnataka forest department has withdrawn the June 2020 affidavit filed in the Supreme Court on the nature of the HMT land and has initiated measures to recover the land, Union Heavy Industries Minister H D Kumaraswamy has indicated that there is no question of returning the land under the control of the HMT factory.

Kumaraswamy has in the past questioned the state government’s intentions in taking back the land granted to HMT. “What do they plan to do with the land if they take it back from the factory, and which builder do they intend to give it to?

“Who gave permission to sell 200 acres of land formerly belonging to HMT? Who was in power in the state from 1999 to 2004 (Congress tenure)? In 2006, when I became chief minister, I ordered that even an inch of HMT land cannot be sold,” Kumaraswamy earlier stated.