Mud roads built inside Karnataka’s Moorkannugudda forest, senior officer calls construction illegal

Moorkannugudda forest connects with the Kempu Hole and Kabbinale Reserve Forests. (Express Photo)

The officials stated that 7,938.38 acre of the land in Moorkannugudda was declared as a forest under Section 4 (notification under which land is declared as a forest area) in the year 1922. For the said area to be declared as a reserve forest, the state government should publish a notification under Section 17 of the Karnataka Forest Act which is yet to be done.

Meanwhile, over the last few years, the forest department and the revenue department officials are at loggerheads over the custody of the 7,938.38 acre of the forest land.

“The Karnataka Forest Act, 1963, which came into effect in the year 1969, clearly states ‘any forest which has been notified as a State Forest under the Mysore Forest Act, 1900 or as a reserved forest under the Indian Forest Act, 1927, the Madras Forest Act, 1882 shall be a reserved forest under this Act.’ The forest department has been protecting 7,938.38 acres of the forest land for several years. We are trying to resolve the issue with the revenue department but that does not mean that resorts will start coming up in the forest area,” the forest department official said.

Moorkannugudda forest connects with the Kempu Hole and Kabbinale Reserve Forests.

Last month, the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) officials found that nine homestays/lodges/resorts were illegally functioning within the enclosure of BRT Tiger Reserve in Karnataka. In a detailed report, the NTCA asked the Karnataka forest department to take action against the violators.