Jagran correspondent, Haldwani. Expressing displeasure over encroachment and illegal occupation of forest land in Uttarakhand, the Supreme Court has ordered to take possession of vacant land except residential houses. Uttarakhand, which has 71.05 percent forest area, has a large amount of forest land under its control. Out of the 53.48 lakh hectare area of the state, about 38 lakh hectares is forest land. But out of this, till April 2023, 11,900 hectares of forest land was illegally occupied.
In the year 2022, in response to a question in the Lok Sabha, the Union Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change had said that 10,649 hectares of land was occupied in Uttarakhand. According to this, Uttarakhand was at third place in terms of possession of forest land among the Himalayan states. The main reason for this is the various obstacles the Forest Department is facing in taking back its land after the lease ends. Along with this, forest land is also being encroached upon due to new settlements. The forest land given to the Van Gurjars for fodder is being cultivated illegally. 2400 hectares of land lost in six years
This has been revealed in the affidavit filed by the Forest Department in the National Green Tribunal. In January 2025, the Forest Department said that from 2019 till now i.e. in about six years, 2400 hectares of forest land has been encroached upon. This is when the state government claims that it has freed 2023 hectares of land from encroachment. Let us tell you that in the year 2017, 9,506 hectares of forest land was encroached upon in 31 forest divisions of the state. Encroachment took place in Corbett and Rajaji also.
Forest land has been illegally occupied even in Corbett and Rajaji Tiger Reserves. Here, not only forest land was captured, but it was also bought and sold. Not only this, even religious structures were built illegally inside the forest land. The government has also taken action against this. Recently, the department had freed the encroachment of forest land in Puchhadi of Ramnagar.