Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Mar 23: Minister for Forest Mian Altaf Ahmed today informed the Lower House that 1114.11 hectares of forest land has been cleared from the encroachers which include 987.01 hectares in Kashmir and 127.10 in Jammu division.
Replying to a question of National Panthers Party MLA from Udhampur Balwant Singh Mankotia, the Minister said, “no forest land encroachment has taken place from 2009 onwards”, adding “as per the previous records/survey 9469.49 hectares of forest area is under encroachment in Jammu province and 3890.61 hectares in Kashmir province”.
Stating that efforts to retrieve the land were being made vigorously, he said, “a total of 1114.11 hectares of forest land has been evicted from 2005 onwards”, adding “a total of 127.10 hectares encroached forest land has been evicted in Jammu from 2005 onwards while as in Kashmir valley 987.01 hectares evicted from 2007 onwards”.
About the number of forest clearances cases (roads, buildings and canals), the Minister informed the House that 64 cases have been pending in Jammu and 38 in Kashmir valley during the last more than one year. “There are other cases pertaining to Beacon, Army, GREF, BRO and PDD, which are under process”, he said, adding “for providing better road communication to far-flung areas like Chenab valley, Poonch, Rajouri, Udhampur, Reasi, Kupwara and for other developmental projects, the Forest Department remains liberal in giving necessary clearance”.
Regarding monkey nuisance in the State particularly in Jammu division, the Minister urged the civil society to cooperate with the Government for taking amicable measures for preparing an action plan to combat the menace.
Ashok Kumar, Ajaz Jan, Sharief Niaz, Harshdev Singh, Krishan Chander Bhagat, Hakeem Mohammad Yasin, M Y Tarigami and Lal Chand raised the supplementaries to the question of Balwant Singh Mankotia.
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