20 kanals of forest land recovered

The Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) Forest Department has recouped some 20 kanals of state-owned reserve forest land worth more than Rs30 million from land grabbers during its anti-encroachment operation.

The operation was carried out in Dana Ferozpur Reserve Forest of Makhnial Forest Sub-division under the supervision of Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) Haripur Sardar Farhad Ali and Sub-divisional SDFO Makhnial Zohaib Hassan.

SDFO Zohaib Hassan told APP, "Reserve forests are state-owned forests where all kinds of construction and sale, purchase activities are banned under section 26 of the Forest Ordinance 2002.”

He said that a total area of 20 kanals was encroached in 2015, whereas in 2021, the Survey of Pakistan was consulted to do the reallocation of forest boundaries.

He said that after the Survey of Pakistan report in October 2021, the illegal occupants of the land were served notices. Consequently, the land grabbers approached the Session Court.

After contesting for eight months, the stays were vacated on July 5 and July 8, he said, adding, "I along with my staff went to the site and removed the encroachment."

The SDFO further said that from October 2021 onwards, some 25 kanals and 14 marlas reserve forest land worth Rs60 million was retrieved.

"The Survey of Pakistan cadastral maps have verified the forest land status with proper GPS coordinates indicating the status of the land before and after any encroachments carried out in the area," he added.

The SDFO explained that there were two types of forest land; Guzara and Reserve forests.

The latter was the property of Forest Department, whereas the former was owned by local communities under the management of the department.

"No land use change can be made in Guzara Forest without the approval of the provincial cabinet," he declared.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 18^th, 2022.