With more than 83,000 hectares of its forest land under encroachment, Karnataka has the third highest illegal occupancy of forests in India, behind only Madhya Pradesh and Assam, notwithstanding efforts by consecutive governments.

According to data from theministry of Environment, forestsand https://exam.pscnotes.com/Climate-change”>Climate Change, more than 13.3 lakh hectares of forests are under encroachment across the country.

Of this, Karnataka alone has 83,092.3 hectares, which, according to local authorities, includes families occupying forests without permission. Heres some perspective: The extent of forest area under encroachment is more than the size of Bengaluru the city has a land area of about 74,000 hectares and more than four times the size ofMysuru.

In Karnataka, the issue of forest encroachment has for long been both a critical and sensitive one. While there are encroachments for commercial activity, the other, more sensitive type of encroachment, has been by families living in areas they shouldnt.

As per Union ministry data, of 13.3 lakh hectares, more than 40% of the encroachment is in Madhya Pradesh, followed by Assam, which accounts for 27% of the encroached land. Although Karnatakas share is much less around 6% compared to these two states, it occupies the third place, followed byMaharashtraand Arunachal Pradesh.