Gadchiroli Jan. 6 (District Correspondent) Forest Department has registered offence against five persons for forcibly encroaching upon 1.29 hectares of precious forest land and selling it to the people illegally. The said encroachment was removed by the forest authorities on Thursday.
The said land is just near the city of Gadchiroli on Gokulnagar -Complex Road. With this action, the designs of the accused to sale the forest land was foiled.
The names of the accused in the case have been given as Manish Suresh Kannamwar, Gajendra Janardhan Domle Rupesh Dewidas Sontakke, Narendra Janardhan Domle, all residents of Gadchiroli and Harish Rewnath Bambole, a resident of village Nawegaon.
According to information given by the forest department these five accused had encroached upon the forest land of survey number 21 and 100 under compartment number 170 under Gadchiroli Forest Range and turned into plots after levelling it, with a motive to sale the precious land to the people.
After getting information of this, the forest department authorities swung into action and started investigation. An offence was registered in this matter. The accused were asked to produce the documents of the said land because they had told during the investigation that the said land was encroached by one Madhukar Gurnule for his livelihood, but they failed to do so and could not prove their ownership of the land.
On the contrary, on the 7-12 extract of the said land the said land is mentioned in the name of the forest department and it is declared as the protected forest.
The forest department authorities thus removed the encroachment including the fencing and the pillars planted by the accused on the land. The said material was seized by the officials and the process of filing the case in the court is in progress.
The operation of removing this encroachment was done under the guidance of DyCF of Gadchiroli Forest Division Milish Dutta Sharma by ACF Sonal Bhadke, Arvind Pendam, RFO, Gadchiroli. Mr. Shrikant Nawghare, Round Officer, Bharat Rathod, Forest Guard and other staff members of the Gadchiroli, Kunghada and Potegaon Forest Range.
Meanwhile Conservator of forest Dr. Kishor Mankar has appealed the people to purchase the land only after verifying the documents as there is forest land near the city of Gadchiroli. DyCF Sharma also has appealed the people who have purchased the land in the survey numbers 21 and 100 should contact the forest department.
Photo The forest officials seen on the land during encroachment removal operation.
