On 3 February 2022, tension erupted between Dalits and upper caste people in Byrenahalli, a Dalit village in Tumakuru district of Karnataka. The conflict started when the family of a Dalit man buried his corpse on a piece of government land in the Koratagere Taluk of Byrenahalli. The deceased was a 57-year-old man named T Hanumantharayappa who died on 2 February at Byrnehalli.

Amidst the clash, upper caste people threatened to disinter the body of the deceased man after which the bereaved family sat on a vigil at the grave of their relative to prevent that.

Speaking to the media, T Hanumantharayappa's nephew, Lakshmikantha BS said, "We used to bury the bodies of our neighbours and relatives by the roadside of NH-234. But the elders were not ready to bury Hanumantharayappa there, so we asked the village authorities to provide another place for us. When they didn't allow us, we buried the body on a piece of government land in survey No. 1, but upper caste people tried to stop us." The family alleged they had no other option as they were landless. State authorities meanwhile clarified that they visited the burial ground to address the issue and promised to intervene if any problem arose. Tehsildar of the area, Nahida Zam Zam, said, "I visited the general burial ground and told Dalit families to bury bodies on 20 guntas which are being cleaned." But Dalit leader Venkatesh Murthy alleged that the Tehsildar wanted them to bury bodies on the burial ground of upper castes, which would fuel more clashes.

In a similar incident in March 2021, a couple belonging to the Dalit community was not allowed to bury the body of their 4-month-old daughter. They were later forced to pick up the dead body from the burial pit and bury the child in a different place. In this case, the family had taken the body to the dry bed of the Suvarnamukhi rivulet for the last rites. But they were prevented from performing the rituals by some security guards of a nearby factory, who claimed the land belonged to the factory.

Notably, the demand for a separate burial land has been a long pending request of the Dalits in Koratagere Taluk of Tumakuru district. Of the 100 families living in the Dalit colony in Byrenahalli, 90 are landless and struggle to find spaces for burying deceased family members.

Back in 2016, there was a heated debate over providing separate burial grounds for the Dalit communities in the Upper Legislative House of Karnataka. The then Minister for Social Welfare, H Anjaneya had announced on the floor of the House that the government had earmarked Rs 40 crore to acquire land in phases to develop burial grounds for the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. In August 2019, the Karnataka High Court directed the state government to take necessary possible steps to provide burial grounds to all the villages and towns which do not have burial grounds within six months.

The lack of burial grounds faced by Dalit communities is a problem that ails other parts of the country as well. To counter such land based exclusion and discrimination, Dalit activists who are a part of a broader national campaign have for long demanded 5 acres (2 hectares) of land for each Dalit family - just about enough for a home and a small farm to live off.

The Karnataka government submitted a status report to the High Court in September 2022, stating that burial grounds have been provided in 92 percent of the villages in Karnataka, and that there has been a delay in a few cases owing to legal issues. The report also stated that 1,141 burial grounds in the state had been encroached upon, of which 282 were removed and 859 are yet to be cleared.

In October 2022, Deccan Herald reported that the government had begun acquisition of land to develop separate Dalit burial grounds in all gram panchayats in the state. “We have started a drive to acquire land for graveyards for the Dalit community in all 6,020 gram panchayats and town municipalities in the state. We have already provided graveyards in over 1,000 villages to avoid discrimination against Dalits by upper castes. I will ensure that Dalits get graveyards in all villages,” Social Welfare Minister Kota Shrinivas Poojari had then told DH. The minister also told The News Minute in 2023 that they do make every effort to provide separate grounds when Dalits report that they are being discriminated against by upper castes and request separate burial grounds. However, cases of discrimination against Dalits continue to be reported from across the state.

In December 2023, a Dalit family in Durgadahalli village of Tumkur taluk had to bury their deceased father on the roadside due to the absence of a public graveyard in the area.