Forest land taken into captivity in large quantity can now hope to become free. The Government has directed all the Divisional Forest Officers (DFOs) to start a massive drive for the removal of illegal encroachments, take action against the defaulters and file cases under the adequate provisions under the law.
The Forest department has identified 20,295 sq. km forest area under encroachment in the State.
Holding a meeting of all DFOs via video-conferencing on Wednesday, Chief Secretary Rajbala Verma expressed concern over the fact that forest land on large-scale is being encroached upon. "More and more number of cases is coming into light about this. The forest land is being captured for non-forest activities in the name of mining, industry or even habitation purposes illegally. The DFOs have been told to identify those, free it, file cases and also remove encroachment with the help of district administration where subsequent order has been passed," said Sukhdev Singh, Principal Secretary of
Forest, Environment and Climate Change Department who along with other officials was present in the meeting.
The CS was for speedy action against offenders where large chunk of land has been occupied illegally. "She also directed to designate a PCCF rank official as nodal officer for the purpose so that the drive can be monitored properly at every district level," he added. This apart, for the improvement of degraded forest the Chief Secretary told the officials to identify 100 hectares of land in each of the 36 forest divisions of the State for developing regeneration sites. The task has to be completed by July 15, i.e. during monsoon.
Giving direction for proper implementation of FRA, the CS told all the DFOs to act as per the statutory provisions laid and to ensure the forest land patta is given to applications after proper verification of the claims. Along with that five wildlife sanctuaries would also be mapped for long-term planning aimed to safeguarding the natural resources over there. PCCF Wild life was also present in the meeting.