15 acre Coffee Plantation cleared by forest dept in Mudigere

The forest department staff on Monday, cleared 15 acres of the coffee plantation grown by a villager by encroaching the forest land in Basani village Mudigere taluk.

The coffee plantation belonging to Narayana Gowda which has been yielding from many years was on encroached land.

Forest department confirmed that the land where plantation has come up belongs to Saragodu Reserve Forest in Aldur zone.

 “without showing the court order, the officials have cleared the crops at 5 am, which is an unpardonable offence.” -Narayana Gowda

Thousands of robusta coffee plants,silver and black pepper were evicted. The evicted land was reaping an annual income of lakhs income.

Over 100 staff from the forest department carried out the drive for four hours.

In 2013 also forest department had evicted 15 acres of Coffee Plantaions belonging to B S Narayana Gowda which comes in Saragodu Reserve Forest in Aldur zone.

Coffee Growers stage a protest and fights

Condemning the clearing of the land, hundreds of growers staged a protest in front of the forest department office.

MLC Motamma said that the officials have behaved in an inhuman manner. Crops worth lakhs of rupees were cleared without allowing the owners to harvest. The grower has incurred a huge loss.

Enraged growers tress-passed forest department to damage door and hurled stones at the office to damage many windows panes.