IDUKKI: In a major eviction drive in Munnar, the Forest authorities on Wednesday retrieved forest land encroached by some private parties near Lakshmi Estate in Parvathimala.
The eviction was conducted under the aegis of Munnar Forest Range officer M S Suchindranath, in which around one acre of land was retrieved. The authorities also destroyed a temporary shed and vegetable cultivation in the encroached land. According to Suchindranath, the eviction was done following an order by Kerala High Court in favour of the department.
Forest officers said three persons named Murukayya, Sekhar and Rajaratnam had encroached land here several years ago, which was evicted in 2014 by the Revenue Department and handed over the land to the Forest Department.
However, encroachers approached the court against the eviction process. When the court rejected their request, they approached Kerala High Court and their petition was dismissed in 2016. “In the meantime, they erected a temporary shed and commenced vegetable cultivation after removing the tree saplings planted by the Forest Department. We decided to evict the encroachment as a botanical garden is coming up here,” Suchindranath said.