Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, May 22: Government has reiterated that the demolition of illegal structures at Raika Bandi, Sidhra was part of the anti-encroachment eviction drive, jointly carried out by a team of the Administration, Forest Department, Forest Protection Force, Police personnel, and officers of the belt forces, in the presence of First-Class Magistrates.
During the said exercise, the joint teams demolished approximately 32 illegally constructed concrete as well as kaccha structures and approximately 03 hectares of encroached forest land was reclaimed.
“It was a clear cut case of grabbing the prime forest lands and then distributing it among their own people. Moreover, it is also a fact the left open portion of the forest patches were subjected to sale purchase by these illegal settlers and “plotting” was going on by stone pitching,” said a Government spokesperson.
Worthwhile to mention that the High Court in its order dated 03.09.2020 in the PIL No. 25/2017 titled SAVE Vs State of J&K & Ors has categorically directed the Forest Department for the removal of the encroachments from forest lands in a time bound manner and even directed for the constitution of high-level committees to achieve the desired objectives.
Rejecting the false notion that only the local Gujjar tribal families have been evicted, the spokesperson informed that the instant case involves the eviction of the majority of non-local encroachers from the forest land adjoining to the fence line of old Tawi Herbal Eco Park and near the Chak line boundary of the Bandi Chak.
“It is also astonishing to note that majority of these self-claimed nomadic families are without livestock at present and no any Grazing Motto (F3) has been issued to them from Jammu Urban Forest Divisions,” spokesperson added.
Regarding the eviction exercise, the spokesperson said that it was not a sudden action but its timeline is quite old and falls back to months of the hectic efforts by the forest field staff to check the spread of these encroachers. On 28.03.2026 during the routine inspection by the field staff, these encroachers attacked the forest field staff and even raised baseless allegation to falsely trap the Govt employees in false and frivolous cases. As such, sensing the urgency of the matter, the higher authorities were apprised and a procedure of issuing the Show Cause Notices was initiated. But all such exercises went in vain as the show cause notices found no takers and they vehemently denied accepting such notices and even misbehaved with the staff on duty leading the issuance of the eviction orders etc, explained the spokesperson.
Also rejecting the claims that these encroachers were residing in the area for the last many decades, the spokesperson pointed that the Google Earth timeline imagery clearly shows that there were only 2 to 3 kutcha sheds upto the year 2009. Further, he added, majority of the structures which were dismantled have its place with the non-local families and only 3 to 4 families are of local Gujjar lineage etc.
The spokesperson recalled that in the year 2012-13 and 2013-14 there were continual efforts from the department to include this entire area (i.e area outside the Bandi Village Chak) within the fence line of Mahamya Forest Park at that time, but the local political regime instead of saving these prime forest patches, excluded this area form the fence line and this resulted into rampant encroachments and even illegal revenue entries.
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