KOZHIKODE: A sizable number of small farmers with homestead holdings in the periphery of reserve forests in the district are willing to surrender their land to the Forest Department on payment of compensation under the proposed Project for Restoration of Forest Areas by procurement of land.

Speaking to The Hindu here on Sunday, K. Subramaniam, Conservator of Forests (Inspection and Evaluation), said a proposal in this regard has been submitted to the Union Ministry of Forests and Environment with a view to increasing natural forest area besides avoiding man-animal conflict to the extent possible.

The land identified would be in the category of `intrusion areas.' It would be a step to rejuvenate the identified areas as natural forests.

A sum of Rs.71.5 crore has been sought from the Compensatory Afforestation Management Fund for implementing the proposal, Mr. Subramaniam said.

Meetings have been held with farmers willing to surrender their land. The proposal, if implemented, would mean that a good chunk of land would be made available as animal habitat, especially that of elephants.

More than 500 hectares of the cultivated areas that comprise homestead holdings with crops such as pepper or areca have been identified in Kozhikode district.

As many as 465 persons, majority of them small farmers, are willing to surrender land in the periphery of the forests. Once the land is in the possession of the Forest Department it would be protected with minimum interference to allow `natural succession' to take place. Mr. Subramaniam said a sizable area that is to be surrendered had witnessed crop failure.

The farmers who primarily cultivated pepper and arecanut in the hill areas after taking loans from banks incurred huge debts owing to failure of crops as a result of disease and lack of plant nutrition.

The areas identified fall in the three forest ranges of Peruvannamuzhi, Kuttiadi and Tamarassery in the district and spread over taluks of Vadakara and Koyilandy.

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