Survey: 1,235-acre land encroached upon in Aravallis

Bijendra Ahlawat

Tribune News Service

Faridabad, August 11

At least 500 hectares (1,235 acres) of forestland encroached upon by farmhouses, marriage places and other commercial institutions has been identified for the demolition drive launched on Tuesday in compliance with the SC order.

Though the drone survey is on to detect the number of encroachments, around 5,300 hectares of land in the district has been designated as protected under the PLPA Act.

Revealing this, officials of the department concerned said the previous surveys carried out in the district had found around 130 major constructions on the forestland located in the vicinity of villages falling in the Aravalli belt.

“Despite the demolitions in the past, the encroachments continue to crop up, mainly due to the involvement of influential persons having political patronage,” say sources.

Claiming that while a majority of the farmhouses were being used for commercial activities such as weddings and social gatherings with the rent scaling up to Rs 7 lakh per day, Subhash Sharma, a social activist, said a monthly lease rent between Rs 5 and Rs 25 lakh was being collected by the owners of the marriage places or gardens. He said the number of total farmhouses could be around 250.

“A detailed survey is on and a final report regarding the total area under encroachments is likely to be revealed after a week,” says Rajkumar, Divisional Forest Officer (DFO).