The land struggle of Tumkur farmers, against being evicted from their Bagar Hukum land , by the Forest Department .
Farmers of Gangayyanapalya and surrounding villages have been cultivating in the land for about 70 years now . And this Gangayyanapalya belongs to Manchaladore and Ankasandra Gram Panchayats of Chelur Hobali , Gubbi Taluk in Tumkur District, which is situated 150 km away from the Karnataka State capital Bengaluru.
Eight years ago, their land in Gangayyanapalya and surrounding areas was seized by the forest department by using violent and old colonial methods. The farmers, now, have once again took control of this land through heroic struggle under the leadership of the Karnataka Prantha Raitha Sangha (AIKS).
About 70 years ago, the ancestors of the farmers of this area converted this vast hilly as well as low lying land into arable land and cultivated food grains , pulses as well as oilseeds including millet, corn, tuar dal and ground nuts, relying on rainfall.
Since 1990, as and when the past governments appealed farmers to apply for regularising of Bagar Hukum land (encroached land without legal titles) , farmers of this land have applied
accordingly, on three occasions. Even though nearly thirty years have passed since they submitting their applications, as stated above, due to the lack of resolve in the part of past many governments, they were forced to keep running from pillar to post, to obtain the title deeds of their land. The government that have been indiscriminately allotting vast stretches of land at various locations, that were set aside as forest land to private business interests for mining and other types of corporate exploitative activities, here, in this case, has arbitrarily converted the revenue land set aside as go-mala land (land that is set aside for cattle-grazing) in which the farmers have been ploughing and doing agricultural activities to earn their livelihood, arguably, in order to compensate for what they have given away to private businesses and also to show that still there is adequate forest area in the state. Farmers who know nothing about these dramas going on within the government departments, have been living with hopes of obtaining legal titles to the land they cultivate.
However about ten years ago, forest department officials out of blue, arrived and destroyed the crops, and threatened the farmers saying, that they would be jailed if crops were grown in that land which they termed "forest land". Those who resisted were subjected to various forms of torture. By intimidation and by frigtening those families who have been doing farming in this land and having possession of this land for a long time, were evicted from their land by using various methods such as kidnapping, physical assault, violence, sexual harassment, attempted rape, by forcefully entering into their houses and snatching away their agricultural equipments, by giving imprisonment in false cases, harassment etc. However, even now, in spite of all these atrocities, some farmers have continued to have the possession of their land.
The farmers in this area came to know about the Karnataka Prantha Raitha Sangha (AIKS), which has been fighting for the rights of Bagar Hukum farmers across the state, and were attracted to the organisation, and since 2017, have been fighting for the repossession of their agricultural land, from which they are evicted. In 2017, farmers were arrested and threatened during a march to Tumkur District Collector's office. At that time, the then AIKS leader KK Rakesh, Member of Parliament from Kerala, personally participated in the protest in front of the local police station demanding the release of the farmers. Due to the pressure of several struggles like Vidhana Soudha Chalo etc, they all were once again given an opportunity to apply in Forum No. 57, under the provision of Bagar Hukum Saguwali Sakrama Programme (Programme to Regularise Encroached Land sans Legal Titles). On the revenue land that had been captured from the farmers, the forest department had planted eucalyptus trees, against the Supreme Court order, as they were destroying the biodiversity. Forest officials have done so because, eucalyptus grows into trees very quickly, and that helps them to take away the right of the land from the farmers.
Due to two years of covid lockdown , farmers' struggle had temporarily slowed down. In June 2022, a day and night dharna for four consecutive days was held in front of the District Collector's office to protect the right of Bagar Hukum Cultivating Farmers and also demanding not to violate the rights to possession of land. The indefinite sit-in Dharna was called off after the District Collector gave a written assurance that he would hold a joint meeting with the Forest Department and the Revenue Department to resolve the issue.
In the meantime, the forest department had cleared the eucalyptus trees. On this occasion, the farmers again started a struggle to get their possession back and started a struggle on 17th March , 2022 under the leadership of the Karnataka Prantha Raitha Sangha (AIKS) , raising the slogan, "Either We Get Repossession of Land or Jail Bharao (fill the jail)"..
It was decided to withdraw the of five consecutive days' protest with the condition that no trenching in the land, no planting of trees or any other activity should be done on this Bagar Hukum land from now on, and with the resolution that, the struggle to rectify discrepancies in RTC would be carried on.
But on 30th Marrch, 2023, breaching the given assurance, a force of more than hundred people from the forest department, consisting not only of its staff members but also some persons with criminal background , pretending as forest department officials, entered the land and started work to dig the trenches and to make the rows of furrows required for planting trees, with the help of huge machine . When the farmers questioned this, they suddenly launched a deadly attack with lathis. More than thirty farmers were seriously injured in this attack. Gubbi taluk KPRS president Comrade Dodda Nanjaiah has to put 31 stitches on his head injury. District Secretary Comrade C Ajappa was also hit with a stick. Women and men belonging to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes too are among those who were beaten up using lathis.
Ultimately, on 1st April, 2023 by holding the red flag of AIKS , the farmers have courageously entered the land, levelled the illegally dug trenches by the forest department and have taken back the possession of their land. The conflict with the forest department and the BJP state government goes on.
