Farmers protest against Forest department for taking away their agricultural land

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru: The Karnataka Ahinda Rakshana Samithi (KARS), condemned the forest department for taking away agricultural land from the hands of farmers without issuing pahani certificates.

They protested in Freedom Park on Monday. The KARS has said that farmers from Karwar, Mundgod, Yellapur and other neighbouring districts have been making their livelihoods by cultivation of crops such as maize and betel nuts for close to three generations now.

However, the forest department has acquired most of the cultivation land and only provided the required pahani (RTC – Record of Rights, Tenancy and Crops) certificate to a handful of the farmers. In 1969, the revenue department had released over 47708 acres of land in the Uttara Kannada district.

However, over 17000 acres of land has gone undocumented as the farmers owning these lands have not received a pahani certificate. Over 70 villages in and around Mundgod and Yellapur are affected by this.

“The farmers rely on these lands to feed their families and need to be immediately allowed to cultivate in their lands. We have also written a memorandum to the chief minister and all the farmers have gathered here to demand their rights,” said R Kirankumar, the state secretary of KARS