Forest department tears down encroachments near Karoran, Masol, plants 10,000 saplings
The officials said that a follow up action to compensate for the loss of trees on an ecologically fragile ecosystem in Kandi area was successfully undertaken on Thursday by planting more than 10,000 new saplings.
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State forest, and police officers along with others during Thursday’s demolition drive. (Express Photo)The Punjab forest department, along with the enforcement wing of Greater Mohali Area Development Authority (GMADA) and the district police on Thursday tore down several illegal constructions that had come up on protected land.
The authorities on Thursday later proceeded to plant tree saplings at places where the encroachers had illegally cut down trees.
Officials said that Thursday’s drive was carried out in the presence of a Duty Magistrate under sections 4 and 5 of Punjab Land Preservation Act (PLPA). They stated that several illegal constructions were demolished and the damaged land in the periphery of Chandigarh in Karoran and Masol villages restored by them. As per details, an FIR had been registered on May 9 against Colonel BS Sandhu and others for felling 500 trees in over 30 hectares of land in the twin villages of Karoran and Masol.
The officials said that a follow up action to compensate for the loss of trees on an ecologically fragile ecosystem in Kandi area was successfully undertaken on Thursday by planting more than 10,000 new saplings. A team of around 150 forest and police officials along with officers of from the state forest, and revenue department as well as officials from GMADA were present during the drive.
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“The violators made a failed attempt to halt the demolition drive. In one instance, they even threatened the officials with dire consequences, like lodging false complaints against them with the CBI and state vigilance bureau,” an official said.
Punjab Forest Minister, Lal Chand, later stated that the present government has a zero tolerance policy towards violation of forest acts especially by land mafia and the government will deal with all such violations with an iron hand.
He also informed that his department is conducting a detailed demarcation survey in the periphery of Chandigarh in the private/panchayat areas closed under section 4 and 5 of Punjab Land Preservation Act (PLPA) to ascertain the legality of commercial activities/farm houses.
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