The Supreme Court has ordered the Karnataka State Governments to evict people who have encroached upon a whopping 12.5 lakh hectares of forest land in states including Karnataka, Assam, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Orissa, West Bengal, and Kerala.The earlier deadline was September 30,2002.It has now been extended to May 31, 2003.In Karnataka it is estimated that around 91,000 hectares of forest land has been encroached upon and the estimated loss to environment due to these encroachments is Rs 4,59,978 crore.