Forest area of Tadoba’s size encroached upon

Times of India: Nagpur: Tuesday, July 31, 2018.

The state forest department has achieved 13 crore plantation target in 27 days, but similar enthusiasm is missing for removing large-scale encroachments on its land which can be utilized for plantations.

According to information sought under the RTI Act by activist Abhay Kolarkar, there are 1,37,671 encroachments on 61,780.233 hectare forest land, which is equivalent to an area of Tadoba-Andhari Tiger Reserve (TATR). In the last 40 years since 1978, the department could remove only 457 encroachments and freed a meagre 938.196 hectare area.

The huge land under encroachment is in addition to the over 86,409 hectare zudpi land already under encroachments and lakhs of acres grabbed by people under Forest (Rights) Act (FRA), 2006.

Based on RTI information from tribal commissioner, Nashik, TOI on November 24, 2017 had reported that since the implementation of FRA from 2010-11, 1,08,593 individuals have been granted titles over 2,59,579 acres of forest land. The RTI also revealed that 2.80 lakh individual FRA claims were rejected. “If you consider a bare minimum one acre of land under their possession, 2.80 lakh acres must be under encroachments,” said Gadchiroli honorary wildlife warden Uday Patel.

Kolarkar alleged that an assistant conservator of forest (ACF) rank officer has been granted powers under Section 53, 54 & 54 (A) of the Maharashtra Land Revenue Code, 1966, to remove encroachments but these officers have failed in their duty.

“Removal of encroachments on forest land should be linked to their promotions and emoluments. In Nagpur division alone, there are encroachments on 2,808.951 hectare forest land,” Kolarkar said.

Interestingly, to a reply, the public information officer (PIO) was shy of sharing details about who had encroached upon forest land. Last year, at the senior forest officers conference (SFOC), forest secretary Vikas Kharge had directed to remove all the encroachments in a time-bound manner. Even in forest minister Sudhir Mungantiwar’s hometown Chandrapur, encroachments which have gobbled up 5,249.116 hectares forest land.

In Maharashtra, Dhule Circle tops the chart with encroachments on 20,925.170 hectare, followed by Gadchiroli (8,582.049ha), Aurangabad (6,580.760ha), Mumbai wildlife (5,933.644ha).