About eleven acres of forest land in the North division of Palamu Tiger Reserve (PTR) have been freed of the illegal occupancy.
The land was under encroachment of three families at Amwajharia locality.
The families belonging to Oraon community had illegally occupied 11 acres of PTR’s prime land for living and agricultural activities and were growing paddy and pulses.
North division’s deputy director Anil Kumar Mishra said that the drive got completed without using any police force. “We gave ample time to these people to vacate our land. We asked them to first save their belongings before going ahead. Our men just brought down their mud walls and illegal houses built on forest land,” Mishra said.
He added that there was no resistance since the occupants knew they were on the wrong footing. “We had cases against them. 18 were named accused.
As encroachment case is non-compoundable and so we wanted them to free our land and now our 11 acres is free we will drop this case against them,” he said.
The forest officials have identified a person Babulal Singh who is said to be a self styled mafia of forest land. “This man was inciting the poor to grab PTR’s land. These people from whom we got freed our 11 acres are of Kaer village,” said Mishra.
Apart from such encroachment there was a dairy running from PTR also. On Wednesday deputy director South division MK Mahaling and his officials drove out 300 buffaloes and 80 cows and held four connected with this dairy.
Mahaling said these people choose the best of PTR’s land with palatable grass and water source before putting their herd of livestock.
MP Singh chief conservator of forest cum field director PTR said, “We have pulled out all stops to curb such illegal things inside the PTR.
Our anti encroachment drive is painless as it is based on persuasion, but with this 300 buffaloes and 80 cows our stand is tough and such dairy owners will be forced to be on their toes all the time.”