Recent data reveal the shocking fact that encroachment in forest areas has seen a whopping 146 per cent rise in the last one year. In most of these cases, it is done in such a systemic way that forest staff and officials are unable to trace a single evidence and are forced to consider the land as an open forest area.

But, then, there are officers like Varun Jain, who apply different methods using latest technology to tackle such cases. The 2017-batch IFS officer is tightening the noose around encroachers and successfully running a big eviction programme in Udanti-Sitanadi Tiger Reserve in Chhattisgarh.

Within two years, he has managed to evacuate encroachers from more than 650 hectares of forest land. Under his leadership, more than 200 encroacher families have been evicted till now under five major eviction programmes.

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Indian Masterminds interacted with Mr. Varun Jain, Deputy Director, Udanti-Sitanadi Tiger Reserve, to know more about these programmes.

ENCROACHMENT

Government data reveal that encroachment in forest land is increasing day by day. From 3,03,324.18 hectares in 2022, it has risen to 7,45,591 hectares in 2023.

The situation in Udanti-Sitanadi Tiger Reserve in Chhattisgarh was even worse. The tiger reserve share border with Odisha for almost 125 km.

Data show that more than 1000 hectares of land were under the occupation of encroachers till 2022. Satellite images show 2800 hectare of forest loss from 2010 to 2022.

Mr. Jain said, “There was a peak of Naxalism in this area during 2013-14. Since it was a naxalite area, there must have been some patrolling gaps from the forest department. Secondly, this was also a tribal belt. So that’s why, encroachment increased day by day, and the forest officials could not do anything due to fear.”

Encroachers were extracting natural resources, feeling trees, indulging in Illegal wildlife trade, timber smuggling, etc. They even constructed a statue of Babasaheb Ambedkar on forest land of the tiger reserve to give eviction a communal flavour.

INFORMATION

When Mr. Jain joined this tiger reserve as Deputy Director in February, 2022, he was appalled to see that encroachers were systematically making their way into the forest and capturing vast areas.
This encroachment was quite dense. There were settlements of 70 to 80 houses at one place and such places kept increasing.

Encroachers used to claim that they had been living at that place for 25 years. Many even said that they had been living there for 40 years.

Witnessing all this, Mr. Jain started collecting information on the ground. He came to know that these people were lying and they had started settling there after the tiger reserve was notified, which meant that the encroachment had been happening continuously since 2008-09. One noticeable thing was that 80 percent of the encroachers had their own houses in revenue areas. But, out of greed, these people wanted to capture the forest areas too. Some of them had even given some areas on lease to other people of the state.

RULE

Even after getting to know these facts, the forest department could not take any action as there was no proof.

Under the Forest Rights Act (FRA), if any person is occupying the Forest Department’s land from before December 13, 2005, then there is a provision to give him a lease.

Mr. Jain said, “Apart from it, if you go to their area, no trees were visible there. The encroachers not only cut the trees but also burnt the stumps. Due to which, no trace of trees was left on the ground and even the present forest officials thought that this was open forest land.”

USING TECHNOLOGY

So, Mr. Jain contacted ISRO’s National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC) and asked them to provide imagery from 2008 to 2012.

Besides this, he also got a drone survey done and created an imagery of 2022.

And, the process of comparison started.

By comparing the imagery received from ISRO and the imagery of 2022, it was found that a very dense forest once existed in this place. It was so dense that more than 400 trees per hectare grew on that land.

NOTICE

After knowing the truth, the Forest Department started giving showcause notices to the encroachers. Along with the notice, satellite images were also pasted as proof. Forest officials countered all the tactics used by the encroachers by installing flexsheets mentioning Article 48A.

Due to lack of women forest staff in the Tiger Reserve (only 3 are there, and 2 were on maternity leave), Mr. Jain called women staff from four other districts.

Now, there was no way out for the encroachers. But, despite this, they went to the high court. But the high court also refused to give a stay against the eviction order. The judges just asked the forest department to give some months time and listen to the encroachers’ appeal.

Till now, five mega encroachments have been removed by the Forest Department, from more than 650 hectares. More than 200 families were living here.

CURRENT SITUATION

After freeing the land, the forest department is developing grasslands. Also, staggered contour trenches are being developed at some places. This will increase the ground water recharge. With this, the trees whose roots were left underground will regenerate and will grow again. This is called Artificial Natural Regeneration (ANR). The cost of ANR is very low and there is no soil erosion. Hence, at a very low cost, the now deserted land will turn lush green again and become a home for wildlife only.