111ha reserve forest freed of encroachments in Yavatmal

Nagpur: With removing encroachments on forest land being a ticklish issue, The Pandharkawda division in Yavatmal forest circle has freed over 111 hectare reserve forest land from the clutches of encroachers.
This is perhaps for the first time in the recent past that a vast tract of forest land, which was under encroachment for more than a decade, has been freed.Normally, removing encroachments is a sensitive issue, especially when tribals are involved. Hence, no action is taken.
One of the reasons behind the action was to prevent T1 aka Avni-type episodes with most of the land being part of a tiger corridor. Of the 1,600 hectare forest land in Pandharkawda, there are no claims or court cases over 190 hectares under encroachments, while remaining is under Forest Rights Act (FRA) claims and legal dispute.
“Of the over 111 hectares, 27ha is in Maregaon & Sonurligaon, 25 hectare in Pandvihir, 12 hectare in Pavnar and 47 hectares in Chanakha. The land holders were not valid claimants nor did they have any papers,” says deputy conservator of forests (DyCF) KM Abharna.
“The drive though started last Friday is part of a long-drawn process underway since January to convince people by holding peaceful meetings. The villagers evicted will be provided livelihood through plantation works on the same land. We also got support from our circle head RK Wankhede,” Abharna said.
“We have been convincing encroachers to vacate forest land but citing reasons like cultivating land they never vacated the area. Most of these areas are contiguous forest patches and at times used by dispersing tigers from Tipeshwar,” said Abharna.
The best part of the massive drive was that all encroachments were removed without any clashes and force and police provided all protection despite lockdown.
Yavatmal SP M Rajkumar said, “T1 was a great learning experience for us. It is better to spare 10 policemen now than over 50 during man-animal conflict situations for which encroachments on forest land is one of the major reasons.”
“We felt the motive of the forest department was justified and was need-based, hence we supported them. Entire exercise is going on smoothly as we are negotiating with the encroachers to show papers or else get evicted. We are preparing them to voluntarily free the encroached land,” said Rajkumar.
Forest officials said while undertaking such drives in tribal dominated areas, the worst problem foresters face is allegations of atrocities. Hence, both police and forest officials deployed tribal staff to convince the encroachers for a trouble-free drive.