The Forest Department officials of Hassan have sealed the cottages of a resort built on deemed forest land at Mankanahalli in Yeslur range of Sakleshpur taluk.
The owners of the resort had encroached upon three acres and 17 juntas of deemed forest land in survey number 141 of Mankanahalli. A team of officers led by ACF C.N. Suresh sealed the cottages and took the land back to the custody of the department on June 30.
Sakleshpur, on the foothills of the Western Ghats, is known for resorts and homestays that attract hundreds of tourists during the weekend. S.M. Pandu of Nagasandara in Bengaluru, Sharanappa Patil of Raichur, and Puttaraju of Vijayanagar in Bengaluru had built the resort.
The Assistant Conservator of Forests of Sakleshpur sub-division issued an order on November 24, 2022, asking the proprietors to clear the encroachment and hand over the land to the Forest Department. The owners had approached the Conservator of Forests of Hassan, appellate authority, against the ACF’s order.
S. Ramesh, Conservator of Forests, upheld the ACF’s order on June 22. In his order, the officer maintained that the encroachers did not submit any records to prove their ownership, and it had been declared deemed forest land long ago and could not be granted to anyone. As per the order, the staff sealed the cottages and took back the land.
Suresh, ACF of Sakleshpur sub-division, told The Hindu on Monday that the land had been taken back. “We are executing the official procedures. As of now, we have sealed the structures and taken the land into our custody. We will demolish the structures that have come up on the forest land,” he said.
