IMPHAL, July 8: Manipur Forests and Environment Minister Th Debendra today said the government had identified 29 villages in reserved forest areas of the State where encroachment was reported and 2,799 houses were constructed in the areas.
KOHIMA, June 19: Nagaland Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio has convened a meeting tomorrow to discuss the matter of encroachment inside the Intangki National Park.
KOHIMA, June 18: Nagaland Forest and Environment Minister M C Konyak today decried the eviction of Inavi village carried out by NSCN-IM inside Intangki National Park without the knowledge of the Forest Department and appealed to all encroachers to voluntarily vacate the National Park area.
Forest Officials evicted about 8 huts out of 22 huts put up by the tribals on forest land near Ashram School at C B Halli near Siddhapura, on Thursday.
The eviction drive was taken up with police security. As the drive took off, the officials saw intense retaliation from tirbals. However 8 huts were pulled down with the police security.
Sandhya Hegde Almane
Once, the Bachagaon forest region was famous for theft of timbers. Today, though, it is a plantation full of greenery. All thanks to the Bachagaon village forest committee (VFC), which has become a model to other VFCs by providing firewood to villagers and income to the committee by converting plain land into an acacia plantation.
Forest Department has arrested 30 farmers including 8 women for cultivation in bagair hukum land, in Haragihal forest limits (Shikaripur taluk) on Monday.
The arrested, who belong to Esur village, have been remanded to judicial custody till June 29.
The Karnataka High Court on Monday pulled up the Forest department for delay in despatching the letter to Survey of India to be part of the joint survey of Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh borders.
The Madhupur forests have almost disappeared, thanks to encroachment, neglect in preservation, corruption by forest officials, nepotism in leasing forestland and discriminatory attitudes towards indigenous people for decades.
