Forest Department has sought cancellation of illegal entries in the revenue records of the encroached forest land in Jammu region citing court directions.
In compliance to the High Court directions, all the Divisional Forest Officers (Territorial) of Jammu Region have been instructed to immediately approach the concerned Deputy Commissioners for cancellation of illegal entries in revenue records and further mutation in favour of Forest Department.
“It is therefore requested to kindly instruct the concerned Deputy Commissioners of Jammu region for taking up the matter of cancellation of illegal entries in revenue records and further mutation in favour of Forest Department on priority, so that the progress made in this regard may be submitted to the High Court of J&K at the earliest on regular basis,” reads the letter of Chief Conservator of Forests, Jammu, K Ramesh Kumar which has been written to the Divisional Commissioner, Jammu, Sanjeev Verma.
The request was made to the revenue department by the Forest Department in reference to the directions of Jammu and Kashmir High Court in PIL Number 25/2017 and PIL No. 19/2017 titled SAVE V/s State of J&K and others dated 21/09/2020.
Quoting directions of the High Court, the Chief Conservator of Forests has brought into the notice that: “Let information regarding all encroachments be again made available to the revenue authorities who shall make the necessary entries in their records, if not already affected.”
It further states: “We issue directions to all departments of the Union Territory of the Jammu and Kashmir that they shall not register or recognize any transactions, transfers, and changes of possession of the encroached forest land in the records in any manner.”
The same has also been reiterated by the Committee on Forest Encroachments in its meeting held on September 28, 2020.
Pertinently, a committee was constituted for the protection of forest land against the encroachment by the Forest Department under chairmanship of Principal Chief Conservator of Forests with one member secretary and three members.