Excelsior Correspondent
POONCH, Dec 16: Going tough on land grabbers and forest offenders, in a major operation, seven persons were arrested by the officials of the Forest Department for girdling 11 green Chir trees in Compartment No. 225/H of Haveli Range in Poonch Forest Division.
On receiving specific information that some miscreants have damaged green Chir trees, a party of Forest officials led by Azmat Hussain Shah, Range Officer Haveli raided the houses of the accused involved in the offence and made an arrest under Sec 36 of J&K Forest Act for violation of Sec. 6 (d) of the same Act. The whole operation was carried out under the supervision of Dr Syed Nadeem Hussain, Divisional Forest Officer Poonch.
The accused have been identified as Mushtaq Hussain, Said Akbar, Mohd Yusuf, Mohd Hafiz, Mohd Bashir, Mohd Hanief and Mohd Shabir, all residents of village Magnar. Four out of these seven, have already been sent on Judicial remand by the court. The remaining three who had earlier evaded arrest are being produced before the magistrate. A case under FIR No. 133/15 of 2015-16 has been lodged against the culprits.
An enquiry into the matter has also been ordered.
DFO Poonch disclosed that the arrested persons were habitual offenders involved in damage to forests and the operation shall act as deterrence to others by sending a clear signal of Government’s policy of zero tolerance on damage to forest resources.
In three separate operations, 105 kanals of forest land was retrieved in Poonch by removing encroachments in Compartment No. 250/S and Compartment No 68/S of Surankote Range and Comp. No. 177/H of Haveli Range by demolishing stone wall fencing and the crop sown on forest land.
Meanwhile, 10 kanal forest land was retrieved by Forest department team from Kalakote area of Rajouri Forest division today. Two kucha structures were also demolished. The operation was carried by Range Officer Shaveta Jandial under the supervision of DFO Rajouri, A K Soni.
Trending Now
E-Paper
Follow our WhatsApp channel