Underground hooch tank discovered inside SGNP
Prayag Arora-desai
MUMBAI: The forest department on Friday uncovered at least four large underground tanks that were being used to store illicit liquor amid various encroachments from inside the boundary of Sanjay Gandhi National Park (SGNP), a protected area.
The area near Sai Bangodapada village has been encroached for several years and had become a hooch manufacturing hub, forest department officials said, adding that the tanks (and hooch inside them) were destroyed immediately during a demolition drive.
“The forest compartment which had been encroached is 38 hectares in size. The encroachments themselves were occupying about 25.5 hectares of this land in a honeycomb pattern, comprising mainly deforested parcels which had been converted for agriculture, along with some unauthorised sheds, wire fences, water pipelines, hooch tanks and kilns for boiling alcohol. These were all cleared up in the presence of 300 policemen, 210 forest department staff and about 100 additional labourers. We plan to reforest the area, and will also be setting up a protection camp to ensure that encroachers do not return to the spot,” said G Mallikarjuna, chief conservator of forests (SGNP).
This is the second major drive to clear encroachments in SGNP after 30 hectares of agricultural encroachments were cleared by the forest department in the Yeoor Range last summer. In 2019, about 15 hooch manufacturing units in the Yeoor Range were also demolished.
The forest department had previously run into conflicts with encroachers in the region. On March 23, 2020, five forest officers who went to Sai Bangodapada to question locals were allegedly attacked.
“The residents of Sai Bangodapada, many of whom belong to the tribal community, have been encroaching on the area for years, but under the guise of
lockdown, we saw that more and more forest land was being destroyed. Due to immense police presence, today’s demolition drive has gone very smoothly,” said Uday Dhage, range forest officer, SGNP.
“There are still several encroachments in the park, comprising both non-tribal and tribal families, which makes resettlement harder because some people will have to be legitimately rehabilitated if they are expelled from SGNP. Damu Nagar, Akurli, Poisar, Yeoor, Thane and Mulund areas of the park have all been encroached on,” said Stalin D, director of environment NGO Vanashakti.