HC slams Kaimur officials over forest land encroachments

PATNA: The Patna high court on Tuesday asked the district administration and divisional forest officer (DFO) of Kaimur to remove massive encroachments on 135 acres of forest land of Kaimur wildlife sanctuary.
The division bench of Chief Justice M R Shah and Justice Ravi Ranjan passed the order while hearing a public interest litigation filed by Vikash Chandra alias Guddu Baba, urging the court to direct the authorities concerned to remove encroachments from forest land in Kaimur and Nalanda.
“How did you allow encroachments in such an important forest area which falls under the reserved forest category? Bihar has only one such area and you allowed encroachment there,” the Chief Justice remarked.
Advocate general Lalit Kishore informed the court that Kaimur wildlife sanctuary is spread over an area of 1,134 square kilometres. “The administration has already removed encroachments from 270 acres of land. Notices have been served on encroachers to vacate the remaining land soon,” he told the court.