SRINAGAR: Admitting that Jammu and Kashmir state is facing the issue of encroachment of forest land, Minister for Forest Choudhary Lal Singh today said at present the total forest area under illegal occupation in the State was 12,030.49 hectares.
The forest department has so far retrieved 961.25 ha of forest land from encroachment during 2015-16, the Minister said in reply to a question by Surinder Kumar Choudhary in the Legislative Council today.
He said in Jammu Province 8625.6300 ha of land has been encroached upon. Out of which Rajouri district head the list with 1987.17 ha of forest land under illegal occupation followed by Poonch 1785.7500 ha, Kishtwar 435.6300 hectares, Udhampur 255.0700 ha, Kathua 210.7030 ha, Jammu 156.2480 ha and Samba 34 ha.
The reply said in the Kashmir Province 3404.86 hectares of forest land was under encroachment. Anantnag has highest encroachment of 1236.21 ha, Pulwama and Shopian 545.37 ha, Ganderbal Sindh 406.3 ha, Badgam 383.21 ha, Baramulla 375 ha, Kulgam 303.25 ha and Bandipora 121.81 ha. Besides Lalpora Kamraj has 12.64 ha of land under illegal occupation.
The minister said that the Forest department has taken effective steps to retrieve the forest land from encroachment after following due procedure in this regard. Vigil is being maintained by the field staff of Territorial Forest Department assisted by Forest Protection Force (FPF) so that no fresh encroachment takes places on forest land. However, cases registered against the encroachers are challenged in the court of law, the reply said.
He said as the magnitude of area encroached is large involving various complexities, no deadline to retrieve the land can be set. However, the department is making all out efforts to get the encroached land retrieved, the reply said adding that attempts of fresh encroachments on forest land are foiled by timely action with the active cooperation of PF and District police Administration.
The reply said that department has not categorized the encroachers as influential and non influential since in the eyes of law all are equal.
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