Shivamogga MP B.Y. Raghavendra requests Union Minister for Environment, Forestry, and Climate Change Bhupendra Yadav to drop objection to lease of forest to Mysore Paper Mills in Bhadravati

Environmentalists and activists of Shivamogga are opposed to renewal of the lease of forest land to the MPM.

Shivamogga Lok Sabha member B.Y. Raghavendra met Union Minister for Environment, Forestry, and Climate Change Bhupendra Yadav in Delhi on July 3. He appealed to the Minister to drop the objections to the renewal of lease of forest land to the Mysore Paper Mills (MPM) in Bhadravati in Shivamogga district of Karnataka.

The MP submitted a letter stating that the MPM, whose lease for 20,005.42 hectares of forest land was renewed in 2020, had not been able to harvest pulpwood due to the objections from the Union Government. This had affected the company and the people depending on it.

Mr. Raghavendra wrote that the forest land had been leased to the company since 1980 for captive pulpwood plantations.

In a letter on March 8, 2001, the Government of India clarified to the government of Karnataka that MPM, being a government-owned company, qualified for getting forest land, or a lease, without obtaining prior approval from the Union Government under the Forest (Conservation) Act 1980.

“Based on the clarification, the State Government renewed the lease for a period of 40 years with effect from August 11, 2020, without the approval of the Government of India,” the MP stated.

However, the Government of India had considered renewal of the lease a violation of the Act, and refused to approve the management plan for the working of captive pulpwood plantations. He requested the Union Minister drop the objections, and allow the company to harvest pulpwood.

On June 25, Karnataka Forest Minister Eshwar Khandre had met the Union Minister with a request to drop the objections.