There is good news for the Forest department, which is striving to clear encroached forestlands. Villagers, who had encroached upon Subraya sacred grove, in Korangala village, near Bhagamandala, have voluntarily decided to vacate the land and have submitted a letter of consent in this regard.
On survey number 106, behind Subramanya temple, in Korangala, there is sacred grove of 59.34 acres. Six persons, who had encroached upon 8.70 acres of land, have decided to vacate it voluntarily.
N S Bojappa (two acres), N J Somanna (1.5 acres) N N Kalappa (1.50 acres), J S Subraya (two acres), B N Lokanath (1.5 acres) and N N Jnanashekar (0.20 acre) have handed over the land to the Forest department. In a meeting held in front of Nangaru Ainmane, the villagers handed over a letter of consent to ACF C Shashi. Following the development, T B Somappa (0.50 acre) and K D Seetha (two acres), who had encroached upon Ayyappa sacred grove at Sannapulikotu, have also decided to vacate the land.
Speaking to Deccan Herald, J S Subraya said, “Our ancestors had encroached upon the sacred grove land, knowingly or unknowingly, and we were cultivating coffee and cardamom. The forest officials brought the issue to our notice. So, we decided to vacate the land and help conserve forests.”
There are approximately 13,371 acres of sacred grove lands in Kodagu district. Some of them have been encroached upon by local farmers. There is no exact statistics on the encroachment.
However, we can identify the encroached land, said Shashi. “We are trying to convince the villagers to vacate the land on their own. Basavanna Devara Bana Samithi had issued notices to farmers, through its lawyer, urging them to vacate the encroached land at Valnoor-Thyagathur Basavanna Sacred Grove.
Now, we have written letters to all sacred grove committees, seeking details and have asked them to vacate encroachers. If the encroachers fail to vacate voluntarily, we have to do it legally,” he said.
source: http://www.deccanherald.com / Deccan Herald / Home> District / by Srikanth Kallammanavar, Madikeri / DHNS / October 24th, 2013
