Uttarakhand: Action on “Land Jihad”, illegal construction being demolished by bulldozers, more than one thousand encroachments in the name of religious places in the state

100 tombs built by encroachment in the state’s forests have been demolished and many are on target. Officials of the Forest Department say that there are more than one thousand encroachments on forest land in the name of religious places across the state. Divisional Forest Officers have been instructed to remove encroachments. Religious places are being constructed rapidly by encroaching on the forest land of the state. In this also, due to the rapid increase in the number of tombs, the ears of the government have stood up. After the instructions of the government on this issue, the forest headquarters had asked the officials to remove them, seeking information about religious places from all the reserved and protected forest areas.

Encroachment in 75 hectares of wildlife sanctuary

The High Court has also reprimanded the State Government and the Forest Department several times in this matter. Department officials say that there is encroachment in 2294 hectares of forest area in Garhwal division and 9490 hectares in Kumaon division. Apart from this, there is encroachment in 75 hectares of the wildlife sanctuary. About 100 mausoleums have been demolished so far, but no temple has been demolished.

Now the campaign to remove encroachment in the forest area will gain momentum

In spite of instructions from the Forest Headquarters to identify and remove the religious places encroached upon in the forest area in the past, some of the religious places of the count have been demolished so far. The Forest Headquarters has now appointed Chief Conservator of Forests Dr. Parag Madhukar Dhakate as its nodal officer. According to Dhakate, a report has been sought from the range level in the case of encroached religious places. In this regard, a meeting of the officers of the department has also been held today. The officials have been asked to send a photo of the encroachment first and then its removal. Such places should also be traced through GPS.