21 hectare forest land freed of encroachments

Nagpur: In a major action, the Nagpur division of forest officials on Thursday removed encroachments on over 21 hectare land, equivalent to 39 football fields, in the Butibori range.
Assistant conservator of forest (ACF) Narendra Chandewar said, “The said parcel of lands included 10.10 hectares in Ashta, 5 hectares in Tamaswadi, and 6 hectares in Chichkota, all in West Butibori. This is the first action this year.”
Earlier, Chandewar said, “In the last two years, our teams have removed similar encroachments on 200 hectares of forest land in three ranges of South Umred, North Umred, and Butibori.”
“The original status of these lands was zudpi jungle but were encroached on by the locals for farming. Now we have dug contour trenches on the freed land so that it is not encroached upon again,” said Chandewar.
Forest sources said there may be such encroachments on over 4 lakh hectares of forest land but due to procedural matters like filing of preliminary offence report (POR), issuing notices, hearing the parties, and final hearings take time. In the Nagpur forest division alone, there are encroachments on at least 600 hectares of land.
The action was taken under the direction of CCF Ramesh Kumar, deputy CF Bharat Singh Hada, RFO Pramod Wade, round officers SB Kekan, MR Munde, and PL Zade.