T Yashawantha
‘BAGAIR Hukum' cultivators in Gangayyanapalya, Chelur Hobli of Tumkur district in Karnataka, have successfully resisted the encroachment by forest department authorities who dug trenches and planted trees on the land that has been cultivated by farmers for generations. Thanks to the timely intervention of farmers under the banner of the Karnataka Prantha Raitha Sangha (KPRS - affiliated to AIKS), they were able to secure a victory in defending their land rights.
Recently, forest personnel illegally entered the Bagair Hukum lands and dug trenches, using force to prevent farmers from accessing their land. In response, on March 17, 2023, the farmers launched a Jail Bharo struggle, a protest involving filling jails, to reclaim their land. Despite facing immense violence from the forest department and the police during a resolute five-day struggle, the farmers were finally able to evict the forest department from the land.
During the protest, more than 30 farmers, including women and leaders of KPRS, sustained injuries. Gubbi taluk president Doddananjaiah suffered a severe head injury that required 31 stitches and hospitalization. However, despite these challenges, the farmers were able to successfully close the illegal trenches and reclaim their land.
For nearly 70 years, farmers in Gangayyanapalya and surrounding villages have been cultivating the land. Gangayyanapalya is located in Manchaladore and Ankasandra gram panchayats of Chelur Hobali, Gubbi taluk in Tumkur district, about 150 km away from Bengaluru. These farmers converted the hilly and low-lying land into arable land decades ago and have been growing food grains, pulses, and oilseeds, including millet, corn, tur dal, and groundnuts, relying on rainfall.
However, eight years ago, the forest department seized their land in Gangayyanapalya and surrounding areas using violent and outdated colonial methods. But now, the farmers have once again taken control of this land through a heroic struggle under the leadership of the KPRS.
Since 1990, the farmers have been applying for regularisation of their Bagair Hukum lands (encroached land without legal titles) as and when the government asked them to. Despite submitting applications nearly thirty years ago, they have been struggling to obtain the title deeds for their land, running from pillar to post. Meanwhile, the government has been indiscriminately allotting vast stretches of forest land at various locations to private business interests for mining and other corporate activities. They have also arbitrarily converted revenue land, set aside as go-mala land (land set aside for cattle-grazing), where farmers have been doing agricultural activities, to compensate for what they have given away to private businesses and to show that there is still adequate forest area in the state. Farmers, who are unaware of these actions, have been living with the hope of obtaining legal titles to the land they cultivate.
However, about ten years ago, forest department officials arrived unexpectedly and destroyed the crops, threatening farmers with jail if they continued to grow crops on the land that was termed "forest land". Those who resisted faced various forms of violence, including kidnapping, physical assault, violence, sexual harassment, attempted rape, snatching away of agricultural equipment, and false imprisonment. Despite these atrocities, some farmers have managed to retain possession of their land.
KPRS INTERVENTION
The farmers in the Gangayyanapalya area learned about the Karnataka Prantha Raitha Sangha (AIKS), which has been advocating for the rights of Bagair Hukum farmers throughout the state. In 2017, farmers were arrested and threatened during a march to the Tumkur District Collector's office. At that time, the then AIKS leader KK Ragesh, MP from Kerala, personally participated in the protest in front of the local police station, demanding the release of the farmers. Due to the pressure from various struggles like Vidhana Soudha Chalo, the farmers were given an opportunity to apply in Forum No. 57 under the provision of the Bagair Hukum Saguwali Sakrama Programme (Programme to Regularise Encroached Land without Legal Titles). The forest department had planted eucalyptus trees on the revenue land taken from the farmers, against the Supreme Court order, as they were destroying the biodiversity. Forest officials did so because eucalyptus trees grow quickly, allowing them to take away the land rights from the farmers.
The farmers' struggle temporarily slowed down during the two years of COVID-19 lockdown. In June 2022, a four-day day and night dharna (sit-in protest) was held in front of the district collector's office to protect the rights of Bagair Hukum cultivating farmers. The indefinite 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.
Meanwhile, the forest department cleared the eucalyptus trees. In response, the farmers resumed their struggle to reclaim their land and began a protest on March 17, 2023, under the leadership of the KPRS, raising the slogan, "Repossession of Land or Jail Bharo" It was decided to withdraw the five-day protests with the condition that no trenching or planting of trees or any other activity should be done on Bagair Hukum lands, and the struggle to rectify discrepancies in the RTC (Record of Rights, Tenancy and Crop Inspection) would continue.
However, on March 30, 2023, breaching the given assurance, a force of over a hundred people from the forest department, including staff members and individuals with criminal backgrounds pretending to be forest department officials, entered the lands and began digging trenches and making rows of furrows for planting trees using heavy machinery. When the farmers questioned this, they were met with violent attacks using lathis (sticks). Over thirty farmers were seriously injured in this attack, and the president of Gubbi taluk KPRS, Dodda Nanjaiah, had to receive 31 stitches for a head injury. District secretary C Ajappa was also struck with a stick. Women and men belonging to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes were among those beaten with lathis.
Ultimately, on April 1, 2023, the farmers courageously entered the lands, leveled the illegally dug trenches by the forest department, and reclaimed possession of their land while holding the red flag of AIKS. The struggle against the forest department and the BJP state government continues.
