The Revenue Department has retained around a hundred acres of encroached land with buildings in Munnar and Wagamon on Sunday. The action followed a Kerala High Court order in this direction.
The land retained included 17 acres under the custody of Tall Tree resort group at Pothamedu in Munnar and 79 acres which was encroached by Kochi resident Cyril P. Jacob. The 17 acres at Pothamedu was encroached using fake title deeds.
Devikulam Subcollector S. Prem Krishnan said the land in question was the one rejected by the District Collector in an appeal in 2010. Again, it was moved before the Land Revenue Commissioner where also it was rejected.
The case was then moved before the Kerala High Court which rejected the appeal, he said adding that the land was in the Cardamam Hill Reserve (CHR) where it was not eligible for allotting title deeds.
Mr. Krishnan said the assessment of the area was in progress as the land was in the rugged terrain. He said the encroachments in other areas would be evicted on receiving the court orders and completing other formalities.
The land at Uluppuni in Wagamon was encroached upon using fake documents. There were nearly 24 fake title deeds created by groups and individuals in the environmentally-sensitive area and they were used to encroach the verdant green hills.
District Collector H. Dinesan told The Hindu that the 24 title deeds were in the name of 16 persons and seperate hearings of all were held after the High Court disposed of the case. The 79 acres are in a single plot and a survey was held in the presence of those who had 'obtained' the title deeds. There were five buildings in the encroached land, he said adding that steps were being initiated to retain the land encroached by Jolly Stephen, considered a major encroachment in Wagamon.
Munnar LR (land revenue) tahsildar K. Radakrishnan, Udumbanchola tashildar Niju Kurian, Idukki tahsildar Joseph and Peermade tahsildar Shaji N.K. led the team team to retain the land in Munnar and Wagamon.
In October last, the Revenue Department took over a resort and the land at Anayirankal, near Munnar, from the custody of Vellukunnel Jimmy Sakaria. It was found that the title deeds of three plots, covering around 3.68 hectares of land, were forged.
