Bangalore : Forest Minister B Ramanath Rai has said the revenue and forest departments would conduct a joint survey to identify the land owned by each.

Replying to a debate on the demand for grants to the Forest Department in the Legislative Council recently, Rai admitted to confusion in the two departments over ownership of land.

No detailed survey has been done in the last so many decades to clearly demarcate forest and revenue land. Thousands of cases are pending before the two departments over the ownership of huge tracts of government land. The delay in the settlement of this issue has come in the way of removal of encroachment of forest land to an extent of 1.90 lakh hectares across the state. The department is using satellite images in marking the boundaries, he said.

Elephant Park in Hassan District

The minister said an elephant park will be set up in Hassan district in the wake of wild elephants raiding villages destroying crops and killing people.

The Forest Department is requesting the Revenue Department to spare 20,000 hectares so as to restore the elephant corridor and to establish the park. A committee headed by the Hassan DC has been constituted to convince farmers to give their land to the department for the corridor.

Independent Agency To probe sapling planting programme in state

Forest Minister B Ramanath Rai said an independent agency would probe whether the sapling planting programme is of any use. “The agency will go through the details of total saplings planted so far, the number of survived plants or trees and the amount spent on the programme. This will help get a clear picture on the utility of this programme,” he said.

Rai said a proposal which seeks to increase the compensation for the victims of wild elephants is pending before the Finance Department and a suitable decision would be taken at the earliest.