Overview
- A Bengaluru Urban deputy conservator of forests issued a June 15 order directing Hindustan Machine Tools to surrender 430 acres in the Peenya–Jalahalli plantation after a Section 64A inquiry that treats the land as forest.
- Union Heavy Industries Minister H. D. Kumaraswamy called the notice a politically timed bid to block a pending central revival package for HMT and said the company will challenge the order in court.
- Karnataka Rural Development Minister Eshwar Khandre rejected those claims and said state action seeks to remove encroachments, protect roughly 280 acres of standing plantation and convert part of the site into a 444-acre biodiversity park.
- The dispute builds on a longer record of contested transfers and probes, including alleged land alienations around 1999–2004, a 2020 interlocutory filing on denotification that drew scrutiny, and suspensions of forest officers.
- The land is valued in filings at about Rs 14,000–15,000 crore and the outcome will shape whether HMT’s remaining Bengaluru assets can be used for a central revival, returned to public green space, or tied up in prolonged litigation.