Forest officer who cracked down on encroachments transferred out by Karnataka govt
Environmentalists are angry, and allege that the transfer order was because of political pressure rather than anything else.
Highly placed sources in the Forest Department confirmed the development. “It looks like the transfer has been made at the behest of the encroachers. Otherwise, there is no reason for the transfer,” a senior officer told.
Environmentalists are angry, and allege that the transfer order was because of political pressure rather than anything else.
“The root cause for the punishment transfer could be attributed to the recovery of 10 acres of forest land (Section 4 declared forest in Survey no 37 of Sunkadakatte, Bangalore South). A good government servant has been sacrificed to appease the ego of a politician. Without forests, we will perish,” he said.
Environmentalists point out that the recent destruction in Kerala and Kodagu due to the heavy rains in August has been attributed to deforestation by scientists.
Retired Forest Officer Lakshminarayanan, who also worked as an ACF in Bengaluru North and retired as a Deputy Conservator of Forests, said, “He was saving the environment and had started a war against encroachment.
There were a lot of issues but he fought against politicians, bureaucrats and muscle men alike.”
He added, “This shows there is no protection for people who are doing good work. He should not have been transferred, he had filed a lot of cases against culprits. Yeshwantapur MLA Somsekhar is behind the transfer.”
A group of environmentalists are now thinking of forming a pressure group to reinstate the officer citing that he has only completed two years of his posting as Bangalore Urban ACF while government service regulations mandate an officer has to complete minimum three years in one position before being transferred.
Ravindra Kumar ACF could not be reached for a comment.