Latest news with #IshwarKhandre
The Hindu
3 days ago
- The Hindu
The poaching case busted by Forest Department handed over to police for further investigation
Thirteen days after the Forest Department busted a deer poaching case and arrested a 31-year-old private vehicle driver, hunting spotted deer in Bannerghatta and Kolar forest area for meat, the Forest Department officials on Saturday approached the jurisdictional Bannerghatta police seeking help to probe further. The Forest Department officials will continue probing the case under Wildlife Act, but they have no provision to probe the case under Arms Act, to ascertain the source of weapons. Meanwhile, the accused who has been arrested and remanded to judicial custody is out on bail. The forest officials on June 29 caught Pratap and seized two cars on Bannerghatta-NICE Road junction, a bike, two guns, and large quantities of deer meat. While Pratap was arrested on the spot, three of his associates managed to escape and efforts are on to track them now . The raid was carried out on the directions of Forest Minister Ishwar Khandre, that a gang was illegally hunting deer in the forests of Kolar and Bannerghatta and selling the meat. Inside, officials discovered the carcasses of four spotted deer and one wild boar. The officials based on his information raided a godown in C.K. Palya where he had stored more meat. A raid on the shed uncovered additional deer carcasses and meat, along with a bike, another car, one double-barrel and one single-barrel gun, 10 live cartridges, and a total haul of nine deer, one wild boar, and 74 kg of meat, the official said. The shed owner, Bheemappa, along with associates Balaraju and Ramesh, are currently absconding. A case has been filed under relevant sections of the Wildlife Protection Act. The officials have now handed over the seized weapons to the Police along with the complaint since the forest officials do not have provision to probe under Arms Act. The accused was reportedly using foreign made weapon and the probe will be on ascertain the source of weapon, a police officer said. Since the accused is presently out on bail, efforts are on to summon him again for questioning.
Hans India
07-06-2025
- Politics
- Hans India
Section 4 crisis to be resolved soon; will appeal to Centre, SC: Khandre
Bengaluru: Under Section 4 of the Forest Act 1963, the government has the option to abandon the land allocated before the notification, and a special proposal will be submitted to the Centre and the Supreme Court to provide justice to the people who have built houses and are cultivating for 30-40 years after the notification, said Forest, Ecology and Environment Minister Eshwara B Khandre. Presiding over a meeting held with Chikkamagaluru district MLAs and forest and revenue department officials at Vikas Soudha, he said that a request will be submit-ted to the Supreme Court and the Centre to give an alternative to the designated forest with residential areas, patta land, etc. and the land allocated after the Section 4 notification, and to abandon this land from the forest area. In many cases, even though Section 4 has been notified for 60-70 years, Section 17 is still not in effect. After the implementation of the Forest Conservation Act of 1980, it has become difficult to abandon such forests. Therefore, it is imperative to appeal to the Center and the Supreme Court. Chikkamagaluru district is in the Western Ghats and there is a rich forest area here. There is 300-400 acres of land in a single survey number, and there is confusion because there is no joint survey. In this context, he told the officials to conduct a joint survey of forest and revenue land and try to resolve the problem quickly. The survey number in the certificate submitted to the Supreme Court as a deemed forest also includes houses, government schools, government buildings, and land plots. Now that we have finally got the opportunity to submit a report to the Supreme Court, we can submit a petition to the Supreme Court by conducting a proper survey and determining the amount of land eligible for abandonment, and by providing revenue land elsewhere as an alternative and cultivating a forest there, Ishwar Khandre Forest Minister also instructed that the deemed forest certificate, which was al-ready submitted to the Supreme Court in 2022, be uploaded on the department's of-ficial website to make it available to the public. Responding to the request of the MLAs that the current 10 km buffer zone around the bear sanctuary in Arsikere limits of Hassan district is also causing hardship to the farmers of Chikkamagaluru in the border area, the Minister said that a proposal has been submitted to reduce this limit to 1 km. He assured that this problem will be resolved soon. Forest, Ecology and Environment Minister Eshwar B Khandre, who convened a meeting to discuss the problems being faced by the common people due to Section 4 of the Forest Act and the affected forest notification in Chikkamagaluru district, was thanked by MLAs Rajegowda, Thammanna, Nayana Motamma, Srinivas and Anand who participated in the meeting. Forest Force Chief Meenakshi Negi, Chief Wildlife Warden Subhash Malkade, PCCF BP Ravi, Biswajit Mishra, Chikkamagaluru District Commissioner Meena Na-garaj and others participated in the meeting.
