The Chikkamagaluru district administration has taken up a survey of revenue and forest lands in the district. While the officers claim the survey was to check availability of land for development works and clearing pending applications seeking a grant of land for cultivation, a large section of people are worried that the survey might take away their lands.
Following the instruction of Forest Minister Satish Jharkiholi as a measure to address the discrepancies with regard to nature of the land, Chikkamagaluru Deputy Commissioner Bagadi Gautam took up the survey and formed teams involving officers from Revenue, Survey and Forest Departments. The survey, which began on April 22, is expected to take over 50 to 60 days to complete.
The work includes getting the measurements on the ground and verifying the same with the documents later. The administration has constituted 42 teams to cover 32 hoblis and 304 villages in the district. The officers have formed WhatsApp groups to monitor the progress in the survey on a daily basis.
As soon as the officers began the survey, a section of farmers raised concerns of their worries over the activity. They questioned the objective of the survey stating that it might be intended to evict people in the deemed forest areas, which is over 1.79 lakh ha in the district.
Those well aware of the problems with the rehabilitation of displaced people wanted assurance from the government that nobody would be disturbed.
Kalkuli Vittal Hegde, an environmental activist, said, “We have reasons to be worried as last year the National Green Tribunal gave an order directing the State government to notify the deemed forest area. When thousands of applications seeking sites for houses and land for cultivation are pending before the government, this is an issue to worry about. In Sringeri taluk, there is no land left to grant to those sought as per the Land Reforms Act.”
Besides this, forest dwellers and those who were evicted earlier have not yet got their due. Now those in the deemed forest areas are worried over losing their land, Mr. Hegde said. A few people’s representatives met the Deputy Commissioner and expressed their concerns over the issue.
Speaking to presspersons in Chikkamagaluru on Thursday, the Deputy Commissioner clarified that the survey had nothing to do with the deemed forest. “The survey is to identify the revenue land and forest land. We are not assessing the deemed forest,” Mr. Gautham said.
Hundreds of applications seeking sites for houses had been pending for many years. Similarly, land was required for new anganwadi centres, schools, government offices. If the government knew how much revenue land was available it would help the administration to plan development works, he said.
He had discussed the issue with many who had doubts about the survey and resolved them.
