07/01/2026
Karnataka Forest Department Stop Cutting Down Thousands of Mango Trees and Destroying Standing Crops in Srinivasapur, Kolar demands All India Kisan Sabha
An All India Kisan Sabha team led by General Secretary Vijoo Krishnan visited Patapalli, Doddamaladoddi, Ketaganahalli, Shivapura in Srinivaspur Taluk of Kolar District of Karnataka. More than 42,000 acres of land belonging to the farmers and some villages in Srinivaspur taluk have been removed overnight from the records of the Revenue Department and registered in the name of the Forest Department. Struggles have been going on continuously in this area for the last three years against destruction of crops and eviction from their land which they have been cultivating for generations. In a peculiar turn of events the Forest Department all of a sudden in 2020 laid claim to this land held by more than 15,000 families on the pretext that the Maharaja of Mysore had in 1910 transferred the land to them for Forest Conservation. Interestingly, farmers have been cultivating from more than 150 years and even the Forest Department laid claim only after 110 years in 2020. The Revenue Department papers and sale deeds are in possession of the farmers.
In August, 2023 they arrived with police force, about 70 JCBs and destroyed standing crops as well as cut down fruiting mango trees, destroyed packing sheds and numerous borewells. It is said that more than a lakh Mango trees have either been cut or are facing threat of being cut. The team met Chowdareddy whose 300 trees were cut down using force. Venkatlakshmamma was brutally beaten up and left for dead when she resisted the takeover. The Forest Department is also erecting pillars demarcating the area. Farmers in many parts have uprooted them. Few villages with all the houses, burial and cremation grounds, schools, anganwadis and religious places are also demarcated for take over by the Forest Department. Generations of toil and investment to grow Mango trees and build houses is being inhumanely wiped out and effectively snuffing out livelihoods.
The All India Kisan Sabha team included, Vice President S.K.Preeja, AIKS Joint Secretary and Secretary of Kerala Karshaka Sangham Valsan Panoli, Bharatraj, Joint Secretary of Karnataka Prantha Raitha Sangha, its Vice President Suryanarayana Kolar district President Venkatesh, Secretary Naveen, State committee member Gangamma and others visited Srinivaspur today. The team discussed with the farmers and the people of the villages and assured them that they would stand in their support and fight the political and legal battles to ensure justice.
