During an anti-encroachment operation, the Forest Department of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa reclaimed 20 Kanal of state-owned reserve forest land valued at more than Rs.30 million from land grabbers.
Under the command of Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) Haripur Sardar Farhad Ali and sub-divisional SDFO Makhnial, Zohaib Hassan, the operation was carried out in Dana Ferozpur Reserve Forest of Makhnial Forest Sub-division.
“Reserve woods are the state-owned forests where all kinds of building and sale, purchase operations are prohibited under Section 26 of the Forest Ordinance 2002,” SDFO Zohaib Hassan told APP.
He stated that a total of 20 Kanal was encroached upon in 2015 and that the Survey of Pakistan was approached in 2021 to reallocate forest borders.
Furthermore, following the publication of the Survey of Pakistan report in October 2021, the unlawful occupiers of the property were served with notices, prompting the land grabbers to approach the Session Court.
After eight months of litigation, the stays were vacated on July 5th and 8th, he said, adding, “I went to the site and removed the encroachment.”
According to the SDFO, reserve forest land worth Rs. 60 million is reclaimed, beginning in October 2021.
The cadastral maps of the Survey of Pakistan have also confirmed the forest land status with correct GPS coordinates reflecting the state of the land before and after any encroachments carried out in the region, he said.
As per the SDFO, there are two categories of forest land: Guzara and Reserve woods. The latter was owned by the Forest Department, whilst the former was owned by local communities and managed by the department.
“No land use modification in Guzara Forest can be done without the agreement of the provincial government,” he added.
