Forest land fraud by more estates

The Forest Department had come up with damning details of misappropriation of forest land by owners of not only Shernelly and Miraflores estates but also others in Nelliampathy, who also had availed of loan on securities pledged with forest land.
 Based on the report, the state police had registered six criminal cases at Padagiri police station against the estate owners.
 The district police chief, Palakkad, in a letter to Chief Conservator of Forests (CCF), Eastern Circle, on April 12, 2012, a copy of which is with Express said that six criminal cases had been registered against Miraflores, Shernelly, Karappara, Brookland, Smitha Mount and Lakshmi Estates.
 In the case of Smitha Mount, the CCF had written to district police chief, Palakkad, that 62.
78 acres of forest land was put up for auction by Debt Recovery Tribunal, Ernakulam, for recovery of loan payable to Jackson Traders to South Indian Bank.
 “This 62.78 acres is a portion of the estate known as Smitha Mount Estate, which is a forest land absolutely owned by the state.

 The auction sale of the forest land was conducted in March 2005 without the knowledge of the Forest Department.
 The bank which gave the loan on the strength of securities pledged with forest land, revenue officials involved, the loanee and the person who purchased are responsible for the misappropriation of valuable forest land,” claimed CCF letter dated February 1, 2012.
 The district police chief was also informed about the details of loan availed of from various banks on similar lines which was defaulted by the owners of other estates.
 “Alexandria estate availed of a loan of Rs 47.66 lakh on the strength of securities pledged with 149.08 acres of forest land. On default of repayment, the bank has approached the Debt Recovery Tribunal for the sale of the property.
No one is entitled to sell the forest land.” Karappara estate took a loan of Rs 3.34 crore from SBI, Palakkad.
 “It has to be noted that portions of the Nelliampathy reserved forest were leased out for raising cash crops by the erstwhile Cochin Government.
 The lessee was having only limited leasehold right.
Pledging of the reserved forest after October 1980 is prohibited without the prior approval of Government of India as per the Forest Conservation Act 1980,” it pointed out.
 Lakshmi Estates also took the loan by pledging the forest land but defaulted like the others.
“In all cases, valuable forest land has been misappropriated leading to the sale by Debt Recovery Tribunal, attachment by Revenue authorities and securing decrees favourable by banks on default of repayment by loanees.
This kind of unlawful activities could be possible only with the connivance, collusion and conspiracy among revenue, registration and financial institution officials,” concluded the letter.