BENGALURU: In a significant development, Karnataka forest minister Eshwar Khandre has directed forest officials to reclaim 444.12 acres of forest land currently under the possession of the Indian Air Force (IAF) at Peenya Plantation, Jarakbande Kaval Reserve forest area in Bengaluru North, as per the govt procedures.
According to forest officials, the IAF was allocated 570 acres of area way back in 1987. However, in 2017, the state govt cancelled the allocation of 452 acres and officially notified it as state forests. Yet, the IAF illegally took up work to build a compound on March 1 without obtaining any forest clearance (FC), prompting the state govt to initiate steps to reclaim the land from the IAF, a senior forest official clarified.
As per the land records available with the state govt, the land underwent mutation as per the state govt’s order in 2017, and the said land is named as forest in all the land records. The forest department even briefed the IAF officials about this documentation and installed a Forest Department signboard at the location. Besides, correspondences were also made to the Ministry of Defence to vacate the land, the senior forest officer revealed.
With the IAF choosing to go ahead with its compound construction work on the forest land, the forest official approached Minister Khandre for further direction. Based on the records and previous orders, the forest minister directed us to reclaim the land as per the rules. Accordingly, we stopped the illegal work at the site, the official clarified.
Currently, the IAF has set up its shooting range on 15 acres of the land at the site to train its personnel and built a small office on a small extent of the same land.
The officials explained to the minister that the remaining land still has enough forest cover. Based on the forest officials’ report, the minister directed them to reclaim the forest land with enough green cover immediately and ask the IAF to apply on the MoEFCC Parivesh portal to obtain forest clearance for whatever land they were using for defence purposes.