Prominent literary figures such as P Lankesh and Poornachandra Tejaswi, who had arrived to participate in meetings organised across the three taluks of the Sringeri assembly constituency by like-minded people under the banner of “Karnataka Pragati Ranga”, were also taken into the forests. Distressed from witnessing the destruction there, they wholeheartedly praised our efforts and expressed support.
Published Mar 10, 2025 | 10:56 AM ⚊ Updated Mar 10, 2025 | 10:56 AM
Synopsis: In the late 1980s, the farmers of Gubbagadde, a small village in Karnataka’s Western Ghats, waged a relentless battle against the illegal logging of a pristine forest. Despite legal setbacks, a determined movement of villagers, activists, and environmentalists came together to challenge the system and protect the land. Today, the forest still stands – a rare and inspiring victory of grassroots activism against the plundering of natural resources. (This piece was originally published in Kannada on eedina.com)
This is the story of a successful environmental struggle carried out for about four or five years beginning in 1988, when I was running the newspaper Munjavu in Chikkamagaluru’s Koppa. The dense forest of about fifty acres that ‘survived’ back then remains intact even today; the Gubbagadde stream, originating within this forest before flowing onward to join the Tunga river, continues to gently flow, providing water to about four hundred acres of farmland.
The forest-hill stretch beginning at poet Kuvempu’s birthplace Kuppalli continues southeast for about three or four kilometres, then runs southward along the west side of Koppa town and finally ends at Koppa-Hariharapura Ghat.
West of Koppa, on the hillside slopes, lies a small village called Gubbagadde consisting of around 20–22 houses. There are about 50–60 acres of rice paddies and 8–10 acres of areca nut plantations.
Approximately half of the village families are small and medium-sized farmers, while the other half consists of agricultural labourers (These statistics are from 1988–93 period).
On the hilltop here is an untouched dense forest (virgin forest) that has never been subjected to logging. Within it are valuable timber trees of immense size. A small spring originating here gradually becomes a larger stream, irrigating fertile lands and eventually joining the Tunga river.
Local environmental enthusiasts say it is quite common in the coffee-estate regions of Malenadu for people to first obtain a few acres of forest land belonging to the revenue department for coffee plantations, cut down the trees and transport them elsewhere, then wait a few years and later alter survey maps to gain ownership over an adjacent area of forest land, cutting down trees from there as well.
This process of gradually appropriating hundreds of acres while extracting valuable timber is widespread. An attempt of this kind occurred in Gubbagadde as well.
Sometime in the 1930s, approximately 50 acres of forest land in Gubbagadde were granted to a farmer named Ramegowda. After changing hands a few times, this land came into the possession of certain individuals in the 1970s, who had already cut down and transported the trees there.
About 10–12 years later, some timber contractors from Dakshina Kannada district, in collusion with Revenue department officials, altered the land’s survey map. They prepared a sketch including the forest area around the Gubbagadde hilltop stream, making it appear as part of the original 50 acres, and applied to the Forest department for permission to cut the trees there.
Under the Forest Act, there is a clause called ‘Deemed Permission’, meaning permission is automatically granted if the department does not respond within a specified period.
Perhaps Forest department staff themselves were involved, ensuring that this application qualified for Deemed Permission. Subsequently, these contractors filed a case in the High Court against the Forest department, seeking validation of this Deemed Permission, and successfully obtained an order in their favour.
At that time, the newly appointed Divisional Forest Officer of Koppa forest division recognised that fraud had taken place and promptly appealed against this ruling to the division bench of the High Court.
However, the department failed to produce relevant original and altered survey maps and other crucial evidence, and also failed to convincingly argue their case before the court to demonstrate the deception.
Consequently, the division bench, presuming that the Forest department officials were intentionally harassing the contractors, explicitly ordered the officials not to obstruct the felling of trees. Furthermore, the court initiated a contempt case against the then District Collector, alleging that records had been tampered with after the single bench’s judgment.
Whilst the DC appeared before the division bench and apologised to escape the contempt charges, the stage was set for the massacre of the trees.
From the moment local farmers discovered attempts to alter old survey maps and freshly fell forest areas, they made persistent efforts in various ways to stop it.
However, they lacked proper legal guidance and adequate support from the Revenue and Forest departments, causing their efforts to end in failure.
Had the farmers intervened alongside the Forest department in the court proceedings from the very beginning, perhaps they could have presented sufficient documentary evidence and argued effectively, potentially leading to a different outcome in the case.
When the case had reached the division bench of the HC, I, as a journalist, approached the then District Collector, B Parthasarathy, who had newly arrived in Koppa.
On enquiring about the details, he responded that he could not provide any information since the case was pending in court – it was “subjudice”. Finally, once everything concluded and the adverse court order was issued, the farmers once again rushed to my newspaper office for help.
After discussions with the farmers, several like-minded friends, and advocate colleagues, we organised a consultation meeting involving the farmers of Gubbagadde and surrounding villages.
We also invited the then MLA and minister, HG Govinda Gowda. He assured us of his full support and cooperation.
It was decided that we should file a public-interest appeal to the High Court. For this task, the meeting chose a three-member team comprising myself, KV Shivaswamy, and Sridhara Shetty. Without delay, we collected all available documents and immediately left for Bengaluru.
KP Poornachandra Tejaswi
At that time, an officer named KS Sugara had arrived as perhaps the third or fourth DFO since the case started. He sat in the advocate general’s office in Bengaluru, actively preparing to escalate the matter to the Supreme Court. The senior government advocate, Shastri, deeply regretted the inadequate arguments put forth by the government’s side in the HC, leading to such a destructive ruling. Together with Sugara, he became deeply involved in drafting a robust appeal to the SC.
In the meantime, we met AK Subbaiah and requested him to file an appeal against the division bench’s decision, seeking a stay order, but we were unsuccessful. Upon learning about all these efforts, the contractors hurriedly began cutting down the trees. The farmers were gripped by immense distress and panic, as though the trees were falling directly upon their chests.
Then, a collegemate of our team member Shivaswamy and an experienced civil advocate from Bengaluru named T N Raghupathi, carefully examined the documents and explained that obtaining a stay order from the High Court was practically impossible. Nevertheless, he told us an ‘inside trick’ that could halt the tree-cutting, at least temporarily, for a few days.
Acting swiftly upon his advice, we immediately went to Chikkamagaluru and filed a case in the district court. There, we successfully secured a stay order!
“File the case in the name of a well-known, respected person. Engage a highly reputable senior advocate. Ensure the judge hearing the case has ‘courage.’ Do not explicitly refer to the HC’s order; instead, rely solely on presenting the documentary evidence. A stay will be granted.”
When we met writer-environmentalist Poornachandra Tejaswi and explained the case, he was horrified, “Enro Maraya! Kadina intha hagalu darodege ilididdarallayya…” (My goddess! They’ve descended into a daylight robbery of the forests!).
He generously permitted us to use his name in whatever way necessary for the cause and signed the vakalat (legal authorisation). We then filed the case in his name.
We approached Dinesh Rao, a senior advocate from Chikkamagaluru, widely respected among both lawyers and judges, and hailing from a family of freedom fighters, to explain the details of the case. He readily agreed to help us.
At that time, the courts were on vacation, and the vacation judge was famously known as “Military Mahadevappa”. Upon reviewing the documents we presented, he promptly issued a stay order.
Immediately after obtaining a certified copy of the order, we rushed back to Koppa, enforced the order through the Assistant Conservator of Forests, and successfully halted the tree-felling!
But by then, within just five days, 312 trees had already been felled. These were massive trees – each one so large that even five or six people could barely encircle it. Beneath their enormous trunks, dozens of smaller trees and saplings lay crushed. It was a scene of utter devastation.
Meanwhile, the contractors had set off for Delhi intending to file a ‘caveat’ petition at the Supreme Court, aiming to preempt the DFO’s plan to file a case. (A ‘caveat’ petition is filed to ensure that no court order is passed in a case brought by one’s opponents without hearing one’s arguments.)
DFO Sugara had planned to file the case at the SC before the contractors reached Delhi by train. For this, he required special government permission to travel by air (such was the rule at the time).
The file seeking this permission was prepared and was meant to move from the deputy secretary in the Law department to the law secretary. However, the said deputy secretary, wishing to favour the contractors who belonged to his own district, intentionally withheld the file and applied for leave the very next day!
When Sugara informed us about this, we decided to directly approach the senior secretary ourselves.
Justice NDV Bhat, who had earlier served as a senior judge in the High Court, was then the law secretary. We had previously met him once and explained the entire situation.
Appreciating our sincere, selfless efforts, undertaken at our own expense for a public cause, he had encouraged us to approach him whenever we needed assistance.
Now, when we visited him again and explained the problem concerning the delayed file, almost reluctantly, he responded by saying, “Oh no, the deputy secretary himself was a respected judge. He surely wouldn’t have done something like this intentionally. I’ll enquire about it…”
Despite defending his subordinate, he nevertheless promptly summoned the file and granted permission for the DFO’s air travel.
P Lankesh
Sugara immediately departed for Delhi and filed the case in the Supreme Court well before the contractors had arrived by train. The SC granted a stay order, instructing the HC to reconsider the case based on the new arguments put forth by the DFO. Thus, a powerful brake was applied to the tree-felling.
The case then continued in the HC. Expressing sympathy to the contractors, the HC issued an interim order directing that the 312 trees already felled be auctioned off. Out of the proceeds, 5 lakh rupees were allocated to the contractors to cover their expenses, and the remaining amount was ordered to be deposited with the court. Crucially, however, permission to resume the cutting of more trees was not granted.
Subsequently, the villagers themselves pursued the case. In the meantime, two of the seven contractors had passed away. Murali Mohan Shetty, who had been leading the case, also died shortly afterwards. With no one else stepping forward to continue the case, it was probably buried under the dust in some corner of the High Court!
It’s been roughly 32 to 35 years since all this happened. The forest has survived; Gubbagadde stream too remains. Ordinary farmers, who fought with extraordinary determination, are now living proudly and peacefully.
This long struggle was not confined only to the courts. Under the Koppa taluk unit of the Chikkamagaluru Jilla Parisara Jagrithi Vedhike, we conducted continuous dharnas and satyagrahas in the forest and also in front of the Koppa taluk office.
Farmers from surrounding villages and members of youth associations participated in these protests, including elderly national award winners for social service, Banavasi Savithramma and her husband, vice principal Venkatesh Muddaliar of DVS College in Shivamogga, Panduranga Hegde from Sirsi of the Appiko Movement, among others.
Environmentalists from Sringeri, Narasimharajapura, Thirthahalli, Chikkamagaluru, Shivamogga, and other places came, participated, and supported us in various ways.
Within our limited means, we carried out widespread publicity. When we travelled around villages, farmers wholeheartedly and generously contributed donations.
We invited a fact-finding team led by Professor Vishnu Kamat from Bangalore Central College and received a detailed report from them. We also repeatedly travelled to Bengaluru and pursued senior officials of the Environment Department.
On one occasion, during a road blockade protest near the forest on the Koppa–Thirthahalli road, Dugappa Gowda, the Koppa Sub-inspector, stood on the road with his police force, shouting, “If anyone creates trouble, I’ll break your bones…” and threw a tantrum to intimidate us.
Moreover, a petty rowdy named Gunavante Parameshwara, who was the chairman of that village panchayat and once even my friend, confronted me one day on the road, aggressively asking, “What’s your problem if Gubbagadde forest is cut down? Is it your father’s property?” and physically assaulted me.
In protest against this incident, environmentalists and ordinary people from across the taluk gathered in Koppa the very next day and held a massive demonstration.
Later, due to this issue and another ongoing struggle against illicit liquor shops, timber and liquor contractors hired a notorious rowdy named Hosalli Venkatesh from Bidaragodu to attack me.
Despite sustained injuries from a 20 millimetre iron rod, I somehow escaped from a talvar attack. In all the three incidents mentioned above, the contractors’ money played a significant role.
Not only this; around the same period, writer-journalist P Lankesh and Poornachandra Tejaswi had come to participate in meetings organised by the ‘Karnataka Pragati Ranga’, which brought together like-minded individuals from all three taluks of the Sringeri assembly constituency. When we took them to the forest and showed them the destruction there, they expressed deep concern and wholeheartedly appreciated and supported our efforts.
Shivarama Karanth
Simultaneously, there was a major movement against the Kaiga nuclear plant. We booked a tempo traveller and sent a group of activists there too. That year, literary giant Shivarama Karanth contested the parliamentary election supporting the Kaiga and environmental movements.
For his election campaign, we again sent a van full of volunteers. We also invited Nagesh Hegde, a widely respected writer on environmental issues and organised his excellent slideshow presentation highlighting the potential disasters and dangers of nuclear power plants.
Overall, the relentless determination of local villagers, wholehearted support from kind-hearted people from surrounding villages, encouragement from MLA Govinda Gowda, and cooperation from environmental enthusiasts across the state together led to the complete success of this people’s movement.
Finally, here’s a special note: all of us have seen fireflies emitting greenish, radium-like sparkling lights, floating about aimlessly at night. Usually, they flicker randomly, without coordination.
But in our Gubbagadde forest, these fireflies put on a unique jugulbandi. Thousands of fireflies across the entire forest form two separate parties, each group lighting up and switching off alternately, like a pendulum swinging back and forth in a wall clock.
This enchanting synchronisation continues throughout the night, making it an extraordinary spectacle for the eyes.
(This piece was originally published in Kannada on eedina.com and has been translated and reproduced with permission. Translated and edited by Dese Gowda)
