Politicians, cops, dept officials involved in forest land grab: Forest Minister

Tribune News Service

Jammu, June 8

Minister for Forests Bali Bhagat today said some senior politicians, police and Forest Department officials were involved in the encroachment of forest land and asserted that “nobody will be spared”.

He also dismissed the allegations that a particular community was being targeted by the Forest Department while retrieving the encroached land, saying that religion had nothing to do with the anti-encroachment drive.

The Forest Department claimed that it had freed 155.06 hectare (3,100 kanal) out of total 13,000 hectare (2,66,000 kanal) encroached forest land in the state within the first 100 days of the PDP-BJP government.

While 84.86 hectare of forest land was freed in the Jammu region, 70.20 hectare land has been retrieved from encroachers in the Kashmir region since March 2015.

“The encroachment was being done in a systematic manner for many years. Some senior politicians, police and forest officials are also involved in the nexus,” Bhagat told reporters here today.

“We have started the process of retrieving the land and nobody will be spared,” he said.

The minister said an inter-departmental committee had been constituted vide government order no. 496-GAD of 2015, dated April 1, 2015 for demarcating identified disputed locations in the context of the J&K Forest (Conservation) Act, 1997 in areas like Sunjwan, Bathindi, Raika and Sidhra in Jammu district where encroachment of forest land had been reported to be the maximum.

He said the committee would demarcate disputed land and submit its report within two months.

Bhagat further said the General Administration Department (GAD) had also been requested to include some more areas like Roop Nagar, Bajalta, Nagrota, Janipur, Choki Chora, Sungal and Domail Jindrah in the list.

Refuting the allegations of targeting a particular community in the veil of anti-encroachment drive, the minister said: “Some people are trying to sabotage our fight against the land grabbers by exploiting religious sentiments of a particular community.”

Giving an account of his department’s achievements during the first 100 days of the PDP-BJP government, Bhagat said his department had seized 18,656.23 cubic feet timber — 11,834.45 cubic feet from Jammu and 6,822.23 cubic feet from Kashmir — which was being illegally extracted.

Beside, 21 vehicles, 41 horses/ponies and two boats have also been seized in the Kashmir region, he said.

The department has also seized 6,377 cubic feet willow, 149.64 cubic feet kail and 133.66 cubic foot chir in the past over three months.

He said 206 kg nagchattri, 39 quantals of firewood, 703 numbers of finished and unfinished cricket bats and 50 kg forest garlic were also seized by the department.

Two illegal saw mills and five vehicles have also been confiscated in the Jammu region during the period, Bhagat said.