Bengaluru: The govt’s move to survey and allocate ‘hadlu’ land (swampy grasslands) to ‘claimants’ residing in Nagarhole National Park in Virajpet taluk, Kodagu district, has snowballed into a major controversy.
Conservationists and a former principal chief conservator of forests (PCCF) have appealed to CM Siddaramaiah to roll back the decision. They say it will add to the rising incidents of human-animal conflict in the region, besides violating orders of the Supreme Court.
Referring to an ongoing ground survey, Braj Kishore Singh, former Karnataka PCCF, in a letter to the CM, who heads the State Board for Wildlife, said, “I have credible information that a survey is being conducted hastily to grant a minimum of three acres within the swampy grasslands (hadlus) in the core area of Nagarhole National Park to all claimants.”
Singh further alleged that revenue and social welfare department officials are working under pressure. Pointing to provisions under the Forest Rights Act 2006, Singh said, “The move to allocate land is a complete violation of provisions under the Forest Rights Act. The 2006 Act recognises the rights of those in occupation as on Dec 13, 2005, and the Act is not to be confused with a Land Grant Act.”
Reminding the CM of the loss of biodiversity in a region that is part of the ecologically sensitive Western Ghats, Singh said, “Forests ensure inflow into rivers, and the destruction of forests will reduce water flow in rivers and streams, thereby resulting in agrarian distress.”
Referring to a field inspection which he had conducted during his tenure in 2011, Singh said, “I found that no part of the currently surveyed land was under occupation by anybody. Evidently, even the deputy conservator of forests, Nagarhole, also wrote to the deputy commissioner of Kodagu that during the joint inspection of the three departments (forest, revenue, and social welfare depts), no occupants were seen in the region.”
Singh told TOI that during the same survey, it was also noted that there was neither proof of any cultivation nor evidence to support agriculture at these hadlus.
“Going by my more than 35 years of field experience in Karnataka, these swampy grasslands are prime habitats of herbivores, including elephants and gaur,” Singh said in his letter. “If this drastic action of disturbing hadlus, which are not occupied even now, and allocating 3 acres to all claimants, is allowed, it will lead to a further increase in human-wildlife conflict. With their prime habitat gone, more elephants and gaurs will be forced out of their natural habitat and move into plantations and paddy fields around Nagarhole in Virajpet taluk.”