Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, Sept 20: The Gujjar community of Tumna village in north Kashmir’s Kupwara district has accused the Forest Department of restricting their movement by erecting fencing on land they have possessed for several years.
They claimed the land, which includes a high school and a few houses, had been in their possession for years but had been fenced in by department officials. “We asked them to remove the fencing from this land, but they refused,” Gujjar Pahadi Forum chairman Irfan Badana said, adding that department officials had erected fencing inside the school grounds.
He said they are ready to take this issue to Delhi, “we would not allow the department to seal the land. We want the governor’s administration to take this matter seriously,” he said.
However, a Forest Department official claimed that the area that belonged to the department had only been fenced, “some barren patches of the forest land have been fenced, which is nothing new. Such measures are taken to prevent the encroachment of forest land,” he says.
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