Minister for Forests, Ecology and Environment, Choudhary Lal Singh today directed heads of Forest and its allied wings to periodically review the progress of Divisional Forest Officers, Ranger, Forester with regard to demarcation and reclamation of encroached forest land and submit the report on monthly basis for further action.He said that best work would be awarded and action would be taken under law against those found lacking.The Minister was addressing Conservators, Divisional Forest Officers, Rangers, Foresters and Guards at Annual Forest Staff Meet here at Sidhra.The meeting was attended by Director Social Forestry Arun Kumar Tickoo, Chief Conservator of Forests Roshan Jaggi, Regional Director Social Forestry Roop Avtar Kour, Joint Director Soil and Water Conservation R C Gupta, Joint Director Forest Protection Force Kh. Qamar-ud-Din besides Conservators, Divisional Forest Officers, Rangers, Foresters and Guards of Jammu, Kathua, Poonch, Rajouri Udhampur and Doda.The Minister asked them to expedite the demarcation and fencing of forest land in every nook and corner of the State. He also asked them to act sternly against encroachers to retrieve forest land and put it to original use.
Choudhary Lal Singh said that in 1985, Government has issued order No. 09-FST of 1985 dated 25-01-1985 that any encroachment takes place on Forest land, Divisional Forest Officers and Revenue Officers will be responsible and liable for disciplinary and penal action, adding that as a result DFOs stopped reporting about fresh encroachments but in reality encroachments continued and no reporting was entered in the official records. He directed the DFOs to furnish compartment wise, beat wise, detail wise encroachments in their division under land breaking (Cultivation), number of pacca strictures and kacha structures, name and particulars of the encroachers, tentative time period of encroachment and present status of boundary line and boundary pillars by October 30 for further necessary action.The Minister said that grazing is a major problem as due to over grazing regeneration of forests has either become poor or totally absent which has threatened the sustainability of the forests. He said there are two types of grazers who graze their livestock and cattle on forest land including nomadic and permanent settlers. He instructed the DFOs to immediately establish Forest checking points to obtain correct number of livestock ‘deras’. He said as per grazing allotment rules, no grazier can construct pacca or kacha kothas except Dera (Kacha Chapper with three walls and one side open) on forest land and this temporary dera has to be removed from the forest land when he moves to summer pastures after March 31.
“But it has been found that many nomads have constructed pacca structure/tin sheds or permanent kacha kothas” he said adding structures are not dismantled in the month of March, in some cases they lock these kothas while moving to high pastures.The Minister asked officers to devote their sincere efforts to preserve the green gold. He directed the officers that forests should be preserved and officials should mobilize people for its preservation. He said “Our State has a unique identity because of the forests and if we fail to preserve them we would be doing disservice to our homeland”.He informed that digitization process of Forest land in coordination with Revenue department has been started. It is high time to demarcate the forest land which would help to know how much land has been encroached and how much is to be retrieved” he added.Calling for a comprehensive plan to develop adequate number of green pastures across the State to meet grazing requirements of the cattle population in the State, Lal Singh stressed for developing barren lands, preferably near populated localities for producing fodder based plants and special species of grasses suiting the climate. He also directed for developing mother nurseries for producing fodder based species of grasses and trees to enhance fodder production in the State.The Minister also said that the government was working on a comprehensive plan for re-structuring the functioning of the Forest and its allied wings.