The Forest Advisory Committee (FAC) under the Ministry of Environment, Forest, & Climate Change (MoEF&CC), has flagged anomalies by the State Forest Department in identifying land for compensatory afforestation (CA).

In a recent FAC meeting held in the last week of September, the MoEF&CC has deferred a proposal submitted by M/s. MSPL Limited after detecting a slew of incongruities in the identification of land for CA in Belagavi district.

As part of the proposal, the company identified non-forestland in Survey Nos. 6/3, 6/4, 6/5, and 6/6 of Amagaon village, Jamboti Hobli, Khanapur Taluk, and Belagavi district located within the limits of Bhimgad Wildlife Sanctuary and measuring about 30 hectares, for CA.

These parcels were subsequently transferred and mutated in favour of the Forest Department in January 2023, and CA suitability certificates were issued by the Deputy Conservator of Forest (DCF), Belagavi division, against two earlier forest clearance proposals.

However, the minutes of the FAC meeting indicate that the same parcels of land were later found to have been notified as "Deemed Forest" under a Government of Karnataka notification dated May 5, 2022. Despite this, the land had been recommended for CA without proper verification of its legal and ecological status.

Subsequently, on November 11, 2024, the DCF, Belagavi division, wrote to the Deputy Commissioner, Ballari, requesting the removal of these survey numbers from the deemed forests' list, stating that the lands were privately purchased. Based on this, the former sought for the deletion of the survey numbers from the deemed forests' list, confirming that they had been erroneously included despite being private properties.

What transpires from the above correspondence is the contradictory sequence -- of recommending private lands as "non-forestland" for CA, and later seeking their removal from the deemed forests' list, thus underlying a casual approach to a serious subject.

Right To Information (RTI) activist Raghavendra said that the issue has brought to light procedural lapses and a lack of due diligence within the Forest Department in the identification of CA land.

He pointed out that officials of the Belagavi Forest Division had recommended compensation to at least 10 "ineligible beneficiaries" under the voluntary relocation programme from Talewadi village, even though the land for relocation had been privately purchased by an individual from Hassan as part of CA.

There is a disturbing pattern of lapses and negligence in land verification and CA recommendations by Karnataka Forest officials, said Mr. Raghavendra, and urged the government to order a comprehensive departmental inquiry and fix responsibility for such negligence. He cautioned that such lapses not only erode public trust but also defeat the very purpose and spirit of the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980.

Union Ministry flags lapses by Karnataka Forest Dept. in CA land identification