By Bhakti Kothari

Madhya Pradesh’s Burhanpur Forest Department isn’t sitting idle after freeing the 6000 hectares of land from the encroachers. Fearing that they might reclaim the land, the forest department is digging anti-encroachment trenches around the freed land.

The soil coming out from these trenches would be used to sow some fast-growing seeds and recreate the majestic forest, it once used to be. They hope that even wildlife might return to this area, once the planted trees grow into a thick forest.

Indian Masterminds spoke to the then DFO Burhanpur, Anupam Sharma, IFS, about how encroachers managed to construct an entire colony inside the forest and why no action was ever taken against them before April 7.

The local villagers and tribals have been using forest produce for their use as per the law. But, gradually, some of them from Neemsetti village started felling trees in the Ghagharla forest. These trees were cut into small pieces and transported on cycles or bikes, deep into the night. They did not use trucks to transport the timber.

How come such large-scale felling of trees was not detected and checked by the forest department? Why was a KGF-like fortress with over 500 wooden shanties allowed to be built inside the forest? “It was not a one-day operation. They were active in that forest for the past 20 years. However, they picked up pace from October last year onwards”, says Mr Sharma.

Even local villagers were not happy with the situation. They kept reporting such nefarious activities to the police and forest department.

The encroachment drive had four stages. First, they chopped the tree then they cut it into small logs. Next, they either burnt down the wood or used the timber to construct their wood houses. The third stage was uprooting the stumps with a JCV, which they had already done in some areas. They, however, couldn’t reach the fourth stage – which involved ploughing the land with tractors for cultivation, said Mr Sharma.

They had three rings of workers. The innermost circle had about 200 persons cutting down trees, removing the stumps and ploughing the land.

Read Full Story https://indianmasterminds.com/features/be-inspired/cant-allow-a-kgf-2-asserts-burhanpur-forest-officials/