Anti-encroachment drive: Uttarakhand govt changes tack after finding temples on forest land

DEHRADUN: The Uttarakhand government has been forced to give up the anti-encroachment drive after a survey revealed that temples were also built on forest land.

A preliminary survey conducted by the forest department revealed that ancient temples like the famous Mansa Devi temple in Haridwar and Garjia Devi in Ramnagar were also built on the encroached land belonging to the forest department.

"The government has been forced to stall its anti-encroachment drive as several famous temples built before 1980 stand on forest land. It was in 1983 that the Rajaji National Park came into existence. The forest law was made stringent after that," official sources said.

The government had planned to remove all encroachments on forest land. But subsequent surveys revealed that apart from 'Mazars' (Muslim shrines), many ancient temples also stand on the forest land. 

About 37000 square kilometers of forest area is found to have been encroached.

Now, the forest department has decided against demolishing religious places built before 1980 in reserved forest areas. This was agreed upon in a meeting chaired by Dr Parag Madhukar Dhakate, who was made the nodal officer on the orders of Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (PCCF) Vinod Singhal, at the forest headquarters on Friday.

Dhakate, who is the Chief Conservator of Forests has sought a report of such sites within three days of issuing forms to all DFOs to remove religious places built by encroaching on forest department land. For this, in the form given to the authorities, reports have been sought about the temple, mosque, Mazar, graveyard, gurudwara, and church.

The officials were also directed to send photographs and GPS locations of the encroachment to know when the encroachment took place. Directions were also given to take punitive action under the Indian Forest Act against encroachers in such cases. According to the nodal officer, "Action is being taken to remove encroachments from forest land on the instructions of the Chief Minister. Information about the religious places shifted has been sought from various departments".

Rajaji Tiger Reserve Director Saket Badola, who attended the meeting virtually, told this reporter, "The work of marking the encroachment is being done very scientifically and technically, so the action will be taken after the facts are revealed with full transparency.