The Karnataka High Court on Thursday (August 13) ordered issue of notice to the State government on a PIL petition seeking restoration of the 711-acre Kadugodi plantation area as “forest land” by setting aside diversion of this area for various industrial purposes “illegally” since 1985 by the State authorities.

A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Vibhu Bakhru and Justice K.S. Hemalekha passed the order on the petition filed by Namma Whitefield RWA Federation Trust, Bengaluru’s

The petitioner has claimed that survey number-1 in Kadugodi had been originally recorded as forest land in government records since 1896 through various notifications.

In Maharaja’s time

The Kadugodi plantation area was initially notified under the Rules for Administration of Forests and Wasteland in the Territories of His Highness the Maharaja of Mysore, 1878. A subsequent notification in June 1896 declared over 24,000 acres of land in Bangalore, Kolar, and Tumkur districts as government plantations, which included the 711 acres in Kadugodi, the petitioner claimed, while pointing out that the forest status was further confirmed through the Mysore Forest Act of 1900 and a notification issued in January 1901, which declared these lands as State Forest.

Despite the land’s continuous forest status, the Karnataka Industrial Area Development Board (KIADB) issued acquisition notifications in 1985 and 1987, acquiring parcels of this forest land for developing industrial layouts. These acquisitions, the petition claims, were made without following the mandatory requirement of de-notifying the forest land and without obtaining prior approval from the Union government under Section 2 of the Van (Sanrakshan Evam Samvardhan) Adhiniyam, 1980 (formerly the Forest Conservation Act).

Claim by Revenue Department

Citing newspaper reports, the petitioner pointed out that in June 2025, the State Forest Department reclaimed 120 acres of the Kadugodi plantation, valued at approximately ₹4,000 crore. However, the Revenue Department is now reportedly staking a claim over this very land, leading to an inter-departmental dispute.

The petitioner has sought several directions from the court, including directions to quash the KIADB acquisition notifications, cancellation of all allotments made to private industrialists, a court-monitored joint survey of the entire 711 acre-area, and restoration of the land to the Forest Department.

Published - August 13, 2026 08:58 pm IST