Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, June 4: Two persons were today arrested for attempting to encroach forest land.
An official spokesman said that after receiving specific information regarding encroachment of forest land in Ragoora area, a special team was constituted by Dr V S Senthil Kumar, Divisional Forest Officer, Jammu.
The team comprising Ajeet Chander, Range Officer Bahu with forest field staff along witn SHO Police Station Bagh-e-Bahu Noor Ahmed reached the spot and found that the forest land in Compartment No.65-B was being leveled by deploying JCB for construction purposes.
The team immediately stopped the work and two persons namely Madan Lal, son of Parkash Singh of Pathankot (driver of JCB) and Meharban, son of Ghulam Rasool of Upper Ragoora, who were involved in the illegal act of encroaching forest land were arrested. The JCB bearing registration number JK02U-2463 was seized for violation under Section 6/39 of J&K Forest Act.
Due to the swiftness of the Forest Department, around 100 kanals of land valuing worth crores of rupees has been saved from the clutches of encroachers.
Dr Senthil Kumar has said that encroachment in the Jammu Forest Division had been carried out in last few years due to high rise in the value of land and increasing population. “There are attempts by the organized land grabbers to encroach upon the forest land”, he said, adding “the Forest Department in the recent past launched many operations against the encroachers and saved the forest land”.
He said that Forest Department has been making all efforts to erect chain link fencing in most vulnerable and encroachment prone forest areas.
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