Over 1,800 hectare forest land freed from encroachers in UP

LUCKNOW: Over 1800 hectare forest land was freed of encroachment in 19 districts of Uttar Pradesh and the same will now be utilised for an annual plantation drive in 2018, a senior forest official said on Friday.

Mukesh Kumar, chief conservator of forest (publicity), told Hindustan Times: “In all, 1870.664 hectare land was reclaimed.”

The feat was achieved after the Yogi Adityanath government took the reins of the state in March.

The forest department coordinated with the anti-land mafia cell at the district level to reclaim the land, he added.

Most of the encroached land was used for agriculture in violation of rules which say only trees can be grown on forest land.

In Mathura district, water kiosks and houses were constructed on forest land in the Govardhan range, forest officials said.

During a survey, the department had identified encroachments on forest land in 19 districts.

Cases were registered against 48 people — 14 in Saharanpur, 21 in Mirzapur, one in Gorakhpur, 10 in Lakhimpur Khiri and two in Chandauli.

Nine crore saplings are to planted in 2018, five crore by the forest department alone.

The reclaimed land will help in meeting the plantation target, officials said.

“Soil work has begun at some locations,” said Kumar.

Encroachment has been a problem for the forest department for a long time. As surveys are done after a gap of many years, people often encroach on forest land for farming or other purposes.

In Lucknow, the authorities built a 38-kilometre- long boundary wall around the Kukrail forest area with great difficulty as there were many encroachments.

Among the 19 districts, the maximum land (717.3 hectare) was reclaimed in Mirzapur district, 65 kilometres from Varanasi.

Amroha in western UP was in second place with 316-hectare being freed of encroachment there.

In Chandauli, 183 hectare forest land was reclaimed.