State domination over the forests, beginning in the British period in early 19th century, resulted in the villagers losing their hold over forests, including the kans. Following the Indian Forest Act of 1878 the kans of Uttara Kannada were mostly brought under the state reserved forests. People’s rights in the kans of Uttara Kannada were curtailed to certain minor concessions like collection of dry fuelwood as in eastern parts of Sirsi and Siddapur (Government of Bombay, 1923). The kans of Shimoga district in the Mysore kingdom came under the jurisdiction of the forest department or revenue department.

1. Introduction of contract system: Contract system was introduced in the kans of Uttara Kannada for collection of non-timber forest produce. The contractors used to extract products like pepper and cinnamon in a destructive fashion, cutting down the pepper vines to collect their produce and hacking down the cinnamon trees for the bark, as for example in Kallabbe kan of Kumta (Wingate, 1888).
2. Kans for meeting timber and fuel needs: Tree cutting in the kans, as in any other sacred forests, was considered a taboo. In Uttara Kannada, following forest reservation, communities lost their traditional hold over forests. Though degraded forests around densely populated villages and towns were set aside as ‘minor forests’ for extraction of especially fuel and leaf manure, as the earlier community centred management system had collapsed, there was rising pressure on these minor forests, leading to their rapid degradation. Yielding to such demand from local people for forest biomass, in eastern Sirsi and Siddapur, villagers were allowed to gather firewood from the kans, which hitherto, the local communities had preserved as sacred places. Collins (1922) reported that in eastern Sirsi and Siddapur the kans were getting infested with the shrubby weed Lantana because of forest degradation. Similar was the situation regarding the kans of Shimoga. Resource shortage faced by the common people after reservations, especially of the timber rich forests, prompted people to fell trees in the kans of Shimoga. According to M.S.N. Rao, a forest officer (1919) fellings in the kans of Shimoga had disastrous effects, including the disappearance of the water supply. Today we can see scores of canopy gaps in these kans, periodical fires burning annually drier patches of woods, inviting once again more deciduous vegetation and bamboo which have become potential fire hazards in otherwise evergreen forests. As the kans were getting exposed to more intense sunlight through wider canopy gaps many have turned too dry for pepper-vines, which was once a major product from the kans, and a priced commodity for international trade from the dawn of history.
3. Logging in the kans: During 1940’s Dipterocarpus indicus from Kathalekan in Uttara Kannada was supplied to the railways and a plywood company. A forest working plan of 1966 for Sirsi and Siddapur taluks included 4,000 ha of kans for felling of industrial timbers (Shanmukhappa, 1966). Another working plan for Sirsi included 670 ha of kans for selection of firewood species for Sirsi town supply (Thippeswami, 1963). Menasikan of Siddapur was clear-felled and converted into forest monoculture plantation (Chandran and Gadgil, 1993).
4. Pressure from developmental processes: Towns and villages are expanding into even the kan areas. For eg. In the neighborhood of Sorab a major road is passing through Gundsettykoppakan. The Sorab town itself has expanded into Hiresekunikan of 20 ha.
5. Kans turn into coffee estates: Coffee introduced into the kans of Chikmagalur district apparently made at least some of the local Wargadars into estate owners. Because of the Revenue Department ownership of many of the kans in Shimoga district, lands within these kans were indiscriminately allotted for coffee cultivation, ignoring their ecological significance, sacredness, and village community based management systems. The Forest Department of Shimoga is making fervent efforts to salvage 90 acres of kan granted to five persons from Survey no. 27 and 52 acres of kan land from Survey no. 29 (both from Kullunde kan of Tirthahalli taluk) granted to three persons for coffee cultivation. Such things have taken place throughout the kans of Shimoga district.
6. Encroachment of kans: Kan encroachment in large-scale, especially for cultivation, is widespread throughout Shimoga district. In Uttara Kannada district even Myristica swamps associated with some of the kans were not spared by encroachers.
7. Contract system in the kans: The state takeover of kans was followed by the introduction of contract system for collection of non-wood produce. The impact in Uttara Kannada, on account of this may be described in the words of Wingate (1888), the forest settlement officer:

I am still of the opinion that the system of annually selling by auction the produce of the kans is a pernicious one. The contractor sends forth his subordinates and coolies, who hack about the kans just as they please, the pepper vines are cut down from the  root, dragged from the trees and the fruits then gathered, while the cinnamon trees are all but destroyed…. I was greatly struck  with the general destruction of the Kumta evergreens, they were in a far finer state of preservation 15 years ago.
Kan allotment for leaf manure and conversion into minor forests
Collins (1922) pointed out that as a variation from its policy of strict protection of kans the Government of Bombay allotted them in any villages of Sirsi and Siddapur taluks to arecanut farmers as betta or leaf manure forests. In eastern Sirsi 769 hectares of kans were added to the minor forests open for exploitation. In Shimoga district several privileges were conceded to the local peoples inside the kans, also leading to their degradation. In Sorab and rest of Shimoga as the timber rich deciduous forests were taken over by the Government as state reserved forests the people were given certain concessions, including fuelwood harvests from kans, which they had conserved through ages as sacred forests. In Uttara Kannada kans (after British domination of the district from 1799, over a period of next 50 years or so, the British consolidated their hold over the forests) contract system was introduced for collection of non-timber forest produce from the kans. This system obviously replaced the system of people’s management that prevailed earlier. The contractor, being interested more in making short term profits, often resorted to destructive harvest of non-timber forest produce from the kans. In the words of Wingate (1888), the forest settlement officer:
I am still of the opinion that the system of annually selling by auction the produce of the kans is a pernicious one. The contractor sends forth his subordinates and coolies, who hack about the kans just as they please,the pepper vines are cut down from the root, dragged from the trees and the fruits then gathered, while the cinnamon trees are all but destroyed…. I was greatly struck with the general destruction among the Kumta evergreens, they were in far finer state of preservation 15 years ago.