Thiruvananthapuram: More than 1,668 acres of govt land across state are under illegal occupation, with Idukki alone accounting for nearly 40% of total encroached area, according to data compiled by revenue department.Of 675.25 hectares (1,668 acres) of govt land across state under encroachment, Idukki tops the list with 260.87 hectares (644.64 acres) under illegal occupation, accounting for nearly two-fifths of state’s total. Thiruvananthapuram ranks second, with 106.87 hectares (264.10 acres) under illegal occupation.Wayanad, another ecologically sensitive high-range district, reported 75.70 hectares (187.06 acres) under encroachment, followed by Ernakulam with 54.12 hectares (133.75 acres) and Kozhikode with 32.55 hectares (80.44 acres).Pathanamthitta has 29.53 hectares (72.99 acres) under illegal occupation, followed by Kottayam (22.87 hectares/56.51 acres), Alappuzha (21.94 hectares/54.24 acres), Thrissur (21.21 hectares/52.42 acres), Kasaragod (15.02 hectares/37.11 acres), Palakkad (11.09 hectares/27.42 acres), Malappuram (9.30 hectares/22.98 acres), Kollam (9.24 hectares/22.83 acres) and Kannur (4.89 hectares/12.08 acres).Responding to a question in assembly, revenue minister A P Anil Kumar said encroachments on revenue poramboke land were being dealt with under Kerala Land Conservancy Act, 1957, through surveys, demarcation and eviction proceedings. Encroachments on road poramboke are to be removed by respective departments, including public works department and local self-govt institutions, with revenue department providing survey sketches and measurement records. Govt said village officers were instructed to detect fresh encroachments and tahsildars to protect govt land, with district-level monitoring.Revenue secretary K Jeevan Babu said govt efforts to reclaim encroached land were ongoing. “It’s not that govt is sitting idle over encroachments. We are taking all legal measures available under law to identify encroachments and remove them. Eviction proceedings are being pursued wherever legally sustainable,” he said.A senior revenue official said the figures represented only a fraction of the actual extent of encroachment. “This is only the tip of the iceberg. The figures cover only cases that have been detected and where eviction notices were served. There could be a much larger extent of govt land under illegal occupation that has either not yet come to authorities’ notice or is tied up in litigation. Many such cases have been pending for years, making recovery a long and difficult process,” the official said.Despite the scale of encroachment, the assembly reply offers little beyond existing legal framework and routine instructions to field officials, without spelling out any special drive or time-bound plan to recover govt land under illegal occupation.
