“The Punjab Government has achieved remarkable success in getting the forest land of the state freed from illegal encroachers which is borne out by the fact that during the past 1 year about 5881 acres of forest land has been freed from the shackles of illegal encroachers.”This was divulged here today by the Forest Minister, Punjab, Mr. Sadhu Singh Dharamsot in a review meeting of all the District Forest Officers (DFOs) of the state. The minister reiterated that the Chief Minister, Captain Amarinder Singh led government is fully committed to put a complete stop to the illegal encroachments throughout the state. He also said that as of now, 31000 acres of land belonging to the forest department is under the illegal encroachments. He further disclosed that during the coming months another land of the forest department measuring 10000 acres would be freed from the stranglehold of encroachers and a process to this effect has been set in motion. The process would come to fruition with the assistance of the Revenue and Police departments.
Sadhu Singh Dharamsot further added that the forest department land falling in Patiala, Sangrur, Ludhiana, Bathinda, Sri Muktsar Sahib, Ferozepur, Amritsar, Gurdaspur, Rupnagar, Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar, Dasuha, Pathankot, Hoshiarpur, Mansa and Jalandhar has been freed from illegal encroachers. Disclosing more, he said that saplings are being planted in the land freed from encroachments and barbed wire fencing is being mulled to ensure that illegal encroachments don’t recur.The minister also said that the 27000 acres of land coming under the Dhar block of shahpur kandi area in District Pathankot would also become a part of the forest department. He also said that as per the record of the Revenue Department pertaining to the year 1904, this land was declared ‘Conserved Forest Area’ but was not entered in the records taking advantage of which some influential people got the land transferred in their name and had planned to construct commercial buildings at the site. Elaborating more, the minister said that the forest department in the year 1986 made a move to get the land vacated from the illegal encroachments but some dealers got the stay from the hon’ble Punjab and Haryana High Court.
Due to the efforts of the forest department, the stay was vacated in the year 2014 and ordered to hand over the land back to the forest department. He said that very soon the land would become part of the forest department.Mr. Dharamsot further added that it has been planned to plant 550 saplings in every village on the occasion of the 550th Gurpurab celebrations of Guru Nanak Dev Ji. Instructions for making all arrangements have been given to all the district officers. He also said that a total of 70 lakh saplings would be required for planting 550 saplings in 12700 villages across Punjab. The campaign would be carried out with the assistance of the Rural Development & Panchayat Department and Tourism Department. He further informed that plans are afoot to organize the main function regarding the 550th Gurpurab celebrations of Guru Nanak Dev Ji at Jalandhar and on the day of the function at Jalandhar, the saplings plantation campaign would be started by planting saplings in the 10-15 villages around Jalandhar.On the occasion, Additional Chief Secretary Forest Dr. Roshan Sunkaria, Principal Chief Conservator of Forests Mr. Jatinder Sharma and all the officers of the forest department were also present.