Tumkur Land Struggle Continues Steadfastly

Earlier this year, it was reported that farmers of Gangayanapalya village of Gubbi taluk, Cheluru Hibli in Tumkur district, Karnataka had forced the forest department to evict them from their Bagar Hukum cultivation land in March this year.

For hundreds of years, farmers in this area have been cultivating but forest departments were forced to flee their cultivations using colonial methods of violence and persecution.

In March, this year, in the presence of senior police officers, the forest department and farmers under the leadership of T Yashavantha, the state general secretary of the Karnataka Prantha Raitha Sangha (KPRS), decided to temporarily withdraw the agitation on the condition that the forest department should not enter their Bagar Hukam land for any reason and we would continue to put pressure on the state government to correct the wrong entry in the RTC.

In case of violation of the conditions by the forest department, farmers had warned that ploughing activities would be initiated.

On 19-10-23, when the farmers were celebrating Navratri, and the festival of ancestral day, the forest department with a huge force of about four hundred policemen started the effort to plant activities.

The farmers, even though they were busy in their festive business, had started protesting at Bagar Hukum land against the huge police force and the violations of the forest department.

After 21 days of day and night dharana, They held a massive protest meeting on 10-11-23, in front of the Tumkur district collector’s office, demanding action against illegal disruption of the lawful acquisition rights of farmers.

The assistant commissioner assured that no small tenant would be evicted under any circumstances and announced that a committee would be formed under the chairmanship of the deputy commissioner on the violence against farmers and a meeting would be held under the chairmanship of the district in-charge minister to discuss in detail the problems of the farmers.

The farmers, who withdrew their protest from the district collector’s office and entered their Bagar Hukum cultivable land, started ploughing.

However, police and forest officials continued to harass the farmers.
Resistance is also continuing despite the atrocities of forest officials and police.