Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, Oct 9: Minister for Forests, Environment and Ecology, Mian Altaf Ahmad in reply to a question by Naresh Kumar Gupta informed the Legislative Council that Jammu and Kashmir is the first State in the country where Forest Protection Force (FPF) was created to protect and safeguard the forest property in the State
The Minister informed that FPF assists Forest Depa-rtment, Wildlife Department and other related departments on requisition. It patrols vulnerable areas on systematically drawn plans to detect and to bring offenders to justice and to take up such special assignment as may be entrusted to the force by the Government from time to time.
Mian Altaf informed that the Forest Protection Force at present has the working strength of 1771 officials against the sanctioned strength of 2257 posts. He said creation of 170 Supernumerary posts of Watchers, 8 posts of Engineering Wing have also been transferred from Forest Department. He said that an amount of Rs. 32.90 crore, Rs 44.41 crore and Rs 50.25 crore have been expended to cover various expenses of Forest Protection Force Department during 2010-11, 2011-12 and 2012-13 respectively.
As many as 4422 cases have been registered by the FPF under the provision of J&K Forest Act, the Minister added.
The Minister said that there is a provision for creation of a Gamma Unit at Bhaderwah, adding that at present Gamma Unit J-08 Doda is catering to the requirement of Bhaderwah Forest Division in addition to its own duties. He said out of 14347.1075 hectares encroached forest land, 1114.115 hectares forest land has been retrieved from the encroachers in the State.
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