38ha Muniya forest land freed from encroachments

Nagpur: At a time when encroachments on forest land posed a big challenge before the forest department, Nagpur division officials have freed nearly 38 hectares of reserve forest land which was part of the Muniya Conservation Reserve in the Butibori range.
Assistant conservator of forests (ACF) Narendra Chandewar said these encroachments had come up in Aamghat beat in Butibori during the last 7-8 years. Over 20 villagers were farming on the said land and had refused to move out. These encroachments were spread in Shedeshwar, Borimanjra and Kohla villages.
Chandewar used powers under Sections 53, 54 and 54(A) of the Maharashtra Land Revenue Code, 1966, to remove encroachments, and issued at least 150 eviction notices and orders thereon.
“In 2019, we had registered preliminary offence reports against these encroachers. During the hearing, the farmers failed to produce valid papers on ownership of the said land. Finally, in the last two days we removed these encroachments,” said Chandewar.
The ACF added, “We are digging continuous contour trenches to protect the forest land and will take up plantations. In the last three years, we have removed over 200 hectares of forest land in North Umred, South Umred and Butibori forest ranges.”
The drive was launched under deputy conservator of forest Bharat Singh Hada. Butibori range forest officer DP Wade, foresters BS Janwar, Sudhir Kularkar, Ganesh Jadhav, Vinod Shende, Dinesh Padwal, Mahadeo Munde, Nilesh Tawle, Maruti Munde, Yogesh Tadam, Ravikant Bhande, Kishor Chavan, and Kalyani Tiwde were part of the encroachment removal drive.