Seven decades on, a glimmer of hope for land rights in Karnataka

Kallukoppa (Shivamogga)

It is 10.30 a.m. and four government officials have just reached Kallukoppa, a village in Sirigere, a gram panchayat in Shivamogga taluk. One of them is armed with a rover to record GPS location, while others are carrying documents.

The team, comprising officers of both the Revenue and Forest Departments, with residents as witness, begins a survey of the land at Maleshankara State Forest – 1. The objective is to identify the cultivators and measure the extent of land being cultivated by each. The cultivators in question are those who were displaced from villages in Hosanagar and Sagar taluks of Shivamogga by the Sharavathi Hydel Power Project in Sagar taluk.

A group of people, all aged above 55, had gathered to witness the survey. The work began with identifying the boundaries of land being cultivated by brothers C. Chandrashekhar and C. Ganesh, sons of the late Channabasava Nayaka. The family shifted to Kallukoppa way back in 1963 from Karuru hobli in Sagar taluk, as their village was about to be submerged in the backwaters of Linganmakki dam, constructed to generate power.

As the rover is placed on the boundary line, the gadget handled by the surveyor records the accurate location. They record the name and details of the cultivator, identify the boundary of the land, and also measure the extent of the land.

This exercise of joint survey is currently on in all seven taluks of Shivamogga district over 9,129 acres. The district administration has appealed to the public to cooperate with the officials for the completion of the survey, as it is being conducted in support of the Karnataka government’s application before the Supreme Court, seeking permission to de-reserve portions of forest land to favour the people affected by the power project.

As many as 42 teams have been formed to complete the fieldwork. The officers are expected to complete the task by the end of April. However, those on the field say meeting the deadline may be tough, given the extent of work involved.

After 70 years

The cultivators, in most places, are cooperating with the staff. This is because they believe that they might, finally, get legitimate rights over their land after this exercise. For them, it has been a long struggle spread over several decades. “Only we elders in the family have come here to witness the survey process. Our children have lost hope of any positive result. However, we cannot let this go without our presence,” said Narayana Gowda, aged around 63.

The families shifted from their native places in Sagar and Hosanagar taluks as their places were to be submerged in the backwater of the Linganmakki reservoir, built for the generation of power in the early 1960s. By 1963, the families were shifted to different locations. The administration indicated the portions of land in different locations for them to cultivate, but they were not given the rights over the land.

Problem of records

The land they cultivated remained a “forest area” in the documents of the Forest Department. In other words, the due process of transferring the land to the Revenue Department for further grant to the displaced did not happen. As the process of offering relief to the displaced families was delayed, the issue became complicated. The cultivators lost records to support their claims over time. Only a few succeeded in getting relevant documents of land grants and maps. Since then, they have been fighting for their rights.

Many of the youngsters have chosen alternative sources of income. They work as construction workers, shop attendants, and drivers, and many are in low-income jobs in the private sector. “Youth from the village are working in private firms in Shivamogga and Bengaluru. It is not surprising since three generations have passed since the wait for the resolution of the problem began,” said Ramachandrappa, 59, who was a toddler when his parents moved to this place.

Initially, the then government showed the displaced families alternative land in Bhadravathi and Tarikere taluks as well. The families moved with whatever could be packed up on the trucks made available by the government and moved. However, only after reaching the designated place did they realise how difficult it was to rebuild their lives.

“My parents were shown a piece of land in Bhadravathi taluk. It was a dry area, compared to the land we cultivated in Sagar taluk. Within a few days, our parents shifted to Kallukoppa,” recalled Chandrashekhar. People who lived amidst lush green and had developed a lifestyle in tune with the surrounding forests felt like fish out of water in the plains.

Over the decades, the families multiplied, and the land initially given to them to cultivate proved too small. According to villagers, many families did encroach upon additional land, as they had no other option. As a result, the extent of land they cultivated increased. A major chunk of the land they cultivated was forest land.

De-reserve forest land

On several occasions between 1994 and 2017, the State government issued orders to de-reserve the forest land for the benefit of displaced people. The process was done at a fast pace between 2013-18. Kagodu Thimmappa, who hailed from Sagar taluk and represented Sagar constituency in the Assembly, was the Revenue Minister then.

Many locals say he knew the problems faced by the displaced people well, as he had witnessed the developments since his childhood. As a resolution to the problem, he got the government to issue orders to de-reserve the forest land. Following the orders, many got hakku patra — title deeds — as well. But the story did not end there.

Following a public interest litigation filed by Girish Achar, a social activist from Hosanagara taluk, the Karnataka High Court, in March 2021, ordered the cancellation of de-notification. He had argued that the State government had no right to de-reserve the forest land without taking due permission from the Ministry of Environment and Forests as per the Forest Conservation Act, 1980. The court upheld the argument. This prompted the State government to withdraw the denotification orders in September, 2021.

The BJP was in power when the denotification orders were withdrawn. This issue became a hot topic for politicians of both parties in Shivamogga. While Congress leaders pointed fingers at the BJP for withdrawing the orders, BJP orders blamed the Congress for de-reserving the forest land without taking permission from the MoEF.

Election issue too

Ahead of the Assembly elections in 2023 and the Parliament elections in 2024, the issue of rehabilitating the displaced became one of the major issues in the campaign. BJP leaders, including former Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa, his son and Lok Sabha member B.Y. Raghavendra, assured people that they would get necessary permission from the Centre.

On the other hand, Congress leaders led by Madhu Bangarappa took out a padayatra on this issue. They invited KPCC president D.K. Shivakumar and Siddaramaiah, who were leading the party campaign in the State, to take part in the protest and promise the people that they would resolve the issue if they came to power.

Even as the elections were to be held, the BJP sought the Centre to grant permission to de-reserve the forest land. However, the Centre refused, stating that the court’s approval was required, citing that in earlier cases the court had objected.

The Congress came to power after the 2023 Assembly elections. Since then, farmers’ organisations have held several protests, putting pressure on the State government to resolve the long-pending issue. The government filed an interlocutory application before the Supreme Court seeking permission to de-reserve the forest land. In December 2024, the Supreme Court gave directions to both the State and Centre governments to resolve the issue amicably by holding secretary-level talks.

Earlier in January this year, senior officers of the State government and representatives of MoEF met in Delhi. After a series of meetings, it was resolved to hold a fresh joint survey of land being cultivated by the displaced people.

More accurate this time?

Earlier surveys were conducted to assess the extent of land being cultivated by farmers. However, the data did not include the extent of land in possession of each cultivator. The officers involved in the process believe that this time the survey would be accurate and might bring down the total extent, which was earlier estimated to be 9,129 acres.

“In some locations, there are hillocks which are also included in the total extent of land. Such portions will not be included in the survey. Besides that, there could be some patches that remained uncultivated for several years,” said an official.

The officers have been asked to enter the data collected in a prescribed format. Chief Conservator of Forests K.T. Hanumanthappa, speaking at the training programme, said that 341 blocks of land had been identified for the joint survey. The officers would fill out the prescribed format. They had been told how to fill up the format and collect DGPS reading and spot mahajar. “The exercise is to furnish accurate data to the Central Government,” he said.

The cultivators want both the Centre and the State to resolve the issue at the earliest so that they enjoy ownership of the land they have been cultivating. “We are the people who sacrificed our lives for the project. The Sharavathi Project was implemented to generate power. Now, the entire State is getting light because of our sacrifice. But we are still in darkness. How long should we wait for alternative land?” Narayana Gowda asked.

The cultivators argue that the government had been generous in offering the big planters encroached land on lease, but was not concerned about poor people who sacrificed their lands for the power project. Ramachandrappa says that their ancestors lost land not once but twice — initially, they were affected by the construction of the Hire Bhaskara dam (Madenur dam) in the late 1930s, and a couple of decades later, in the 1960s, they were hit by the Linganmakki dam project.

“All these years, we have not got fair compensation for the land we lost. However, the government is ready to give additional land to the coffee planters, who encroached upon government land,” claimed Ramachandrappa.

A majority of those who are now hopeful of getting title deeds are small farmers. As the generations passed, the land was fragmented among family members. Shivappa, also a resident of Kallukoppa, has only 20 guntas of land. However, he too has no records of rights over the land he had cultivated all these years. With no rights, the farmers cannot sell it or develop it.

“The government should be generous to the poor farmers. Our parents passed away without owning the land they possessed. We don’t know if our dream of owning land will be fulfilled in our lifetime,” said Manjappa, as he watched the survey work being conducted.