Rishikesh: Principal Chief Conservator of Forests and Head of Forest Force, Anoop Malik, has asked the forest officers in Uttarakhand to stop illegal farming on forest land or face action, officials said Thursday.
More than 1,000 acres of forest land in seven forest divisions of Uttarakhand are being used for mechanised farming by the Van Gujjars on sharecropping basis.
Taking a serious view of the matter, Malik held a meeting with the senior officers to completely stop the practice in their areas or be ready to face action, the forest officials said. The satellite images shared by the department show illegal farming being done on the forest land in Gujjar areas like Aampokhra south beat in Terai Forest Division, Ramnagar.
Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami and Forest Minister Subodh Uniyal had also expressed their displeasure over this issue recently.
Parag Madhukar Dhakate, the nodal officer for the campaign to remove illegal encroachments from forest land, told PTI that Gujjars feed their cattle on more than 1,000 acres of forest land in the three forest divisions of Garhwal division and four of Kumaon division.
However, instead of planting fodder for their cattle, they are subletting the forest land for mechanised farming which is illegal, he added.
Dhakate said the officers of Dehradun, Haridwar, Kalsi, Lansdowne, Terai East, Terai West and Terai Central Forest divisions and their controlling officers have been asked to re-develop the forest areas occupied by the Gujjars. If this does not happen, the government can take punitive action against the forest officers concerned, he added. —PTI
