Assam Tops List in Encroachment of Forest Land

Staff Reporter

GUWAHATI: Assam tops the list of states where forest lands have been encroached upon. Following Assam are Maharashtra and Arunachal Pradesh. This is what the latest information from the central government said.

Union Minister of State for Environment, Forest and Climate Change Kirti Vardhan Singh revealed this on the floor of the Lok Sabha on Monday. The minister said this while replying to a query from MP Manju Sharma.        

According to the Union minister, Assam tops the list with the encroachment of 213254.91 hectares of forest land. The states following Assam are Maharashtra with the encroachment of 57554.87 hectares, Arunachal Pradesh with the encroachment of 53499.96 hectares, Odisha with 40507.56 hectares, Andhra Pradesh with 13318.16 hectares, Tamil Nadu with 15768.48 hectares, Tripura with 4242.37 hectares, Sikkim with 469.16 hectares, etc.

According to the Union Minister, the protection and management of forests is primarily the responsibility of the state government and the UT administration concerned. To prevent the encroachment, appropriate legal provisions are there in the Indian Forest Act, 1927, the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, and the Local Forest Acts/Rules.

This ministry issues advisories to state governments/UT administrations to remove encroachments on forest lands as per the provisions of the law and to ensure that further encroachments do not occur, the minister said. Further, to prevent encroachments, various measures are taken by the state forest departments, which include the survey and demarcation of forest areas, the fixing of pillars along forest boundaries, and regular patrolling by field staff. The state forest departments also use a range of modern technologies such as Geographical Information Systems (GIS), remote sensing, and global positioning systems to check encroachments in the forest areas, the minister said.

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