Karnataka: Crackdown soon on encroachments in Bengaluru forest cover

The Congress government in Karnataka is set to evict the encroachers in order to retain the forest cover in the Bangalore district. Towards that end, Forest Minister Eshwar Khandre has ordered the eviction of encroachers from 2871 acres of forest area in the district. Image Credit: Tobias Aeppli

Encroachers will be prosecuted under the Forest Act, an investigation will be launched, and measures will be taken to remove the illegal structures. However, Residents in the Bangalore city division have gone to the High Court for an injunction in 18 separate cases to avoid being removed.

According to Forest, Biology, and Environment Minister Eshwar Khandre, there have been 1051 occurrences of encroachment on forest land totalling 2871.37 acre-gunte in the Bengaluru municipal region since 1978.

Answering BJP's Muniraju Gowda's query, he replied that there were no encroachment charges in Bengaluru city and Bannerghatta National Park before 1978. While before 1978, 45.01 acres were recorded as encroached in 65 cases in Bangalore North Taluk, 59 acres in 20 cases in Bangalore North, 570 acres in 250 cases in Bangalore East, 1277.33 acres in 283 cases in Bangalore South Taluk, and 332.28 acres in 86 cases in Anekal Taluk. Similarly, 347 instances of encroachment have been recorded in Bannerghatta National Forest Division, totaling 587.15 acres.

Earlier, Muniraju claimed that land in Bangalore city is now more expensive than gold. "They've cleared out thousands of acres of forest without permission. After 19 years in the same place, they still can't seem to evict them," he said. He sought to know what measures have been taken to ensure that the powerful encroachers and government officials are punished.