Efforts on to retrieve 12,000-hectare encroached forest land, says govt

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, June 29

In a written reply in the Legislative Assembly here today, Minister for Forest, Ecology and Environment Lal Singh said 12,030.49 hectares of forest land have been encroached upon in the state. He was replying to a question of MLC Vibod Gupta.

“The Department is making sincere efforts to get the encroached land retrieved. The encroachment took place decades back and at some places permanent settlements have also come up,” the Minister said. He added that substantial progress in the eviction of encroached forest land had been made. “Attempts of fresh encroachment were foiled by prompt action with the active cooperation of the Forest Protection Force and district police functionaries,” he said.

The Minister said the forest land under encroachment had been classified into three categories: ‘easily removable’- where the land is under cultivation, ‘difficult to remove’- where kaccha structures have been made and ‘very difficult to remove’- where permanent structures have come up.

After facing criticism from the Opposition for not taking proper action, the Minister said the forest staff was on a high vigil and strictly preventing and removing the encroachments. He said the areas vulnerable to encroachment were being fenced on priority.

From 2015-16, the Forest Department has retrieved 961.25 hectares of encroached land, he added. “The retrieved land is being fenced using different types of fencing material to check any encroachment,” he said.