KARACHI: The Sindh Assembly was informed on Wednesday that thousands of acres of rich forest land, a big chunk of it in former president Asif Zardari’s native division, had been encroached upon and the provincial government had reportedly succeeded in recovering a small part of it.

“Some 5,632 acres of land in Shaheed Benazirabad division [formerly Nawabshah] is under illegal encroachment,” said Law Minister Ziaul Hasan Lanjar in response to a question asked by Muttahida Qaumi Movement’s Heer Soho during the assembly’s Question Hour.

Mr Lanjar was replying to the members’ questions on behalf of the chief minister who also holds the forest portfolio.

The Mari forest in Benazirabad division is the worst among the wooded areas of Sindh of which 2,572 acres had been encroached upon.

Lakhat comes next where influential encroachers have illegally occupied 2,097 acres of rich fertile land. Similarly, 945 acres of Sukhpur and 18 acres of Nasri forest have been encroached upon.

The minister claimed that the forest department had taken all possible steps to protect woodlands from further encroachment. “We have lodged FIRs against 47 encroachers.”

The Sindh govt has retrieved over 800 acres of forest land, PA told

However, it was not elaborated whether any of the encroachers had been arrested.

The house was informed that in a recent anti-encroachment drive, around 800 acres of the encroached land was vacated and brought under forest plantation.

A similar question by the same member sought the government’s opinion on reports that 20 out of 28 forests in the province had been converted into agricultural land by influential persons in Nara taluka of Khairpur district.

The minister replied that there were 32 reserved forests with total area of 9,656.22 acres in the taluka. “Of these 32 reserved forests, only three forests contain tree growth of babul and eucalyptus over an area of 510 acres as reported by the conservator of forests, afforestation circle, Sukkur.”

He said the rest of the reserved forests in Nara taluka were devoid of commercially important tree growth for the last many decades. “The entire area is in peaceful possession of forest department. The area is undulated, sandy and somewhere [has] become saline having natural vegetation along the Nara Canal, therefore not fit [for] agriculture purpose.”

However, he conceded to another part of the question about three other forests when he stated that more than 900 acres of their land had been encroached upon, or had been allotted “illegally”.

He said total area of Phariaro forest in Khairpur was 1,001.21 acres; it had been declared as reserved forest in 1958, out of which an area of 694 acres was “being under encroachment on the basis of illegal allotments made by the revenue authorities during the years 1967, 1970, 1985-86, 1993 and 2001”.

He said the “illegal allottees” were in possession of that land for many decades.

“As a matter of record, the forest department had challenged these illegal allotments before various competent forums such as [from] the Member Board of Revenue up to Supreme Court of Pakistan, but in spite of all efforts, the revenue authorities have not cancelled the entries.

“At present, the matter of cancellation of entries is pending before the Sukkur commissioner.”

He, however, said the forest department had lodged two FIRs against the “encroachers” at the Sorah police station of Nara taluka, but still the possession rested with the “illegal allottees”.

About Topno forest in Khairpur district, Mr Lanjar said it consisted of 450.4 acres of which 118 acres were under encroachment. The area has been under encroachment “since the last two decades.”

In this context, he added, the forest department had lodged an FIR against an alleged encroacher, Haji Allah Warayo Rajar, and the case was being proceeded in the court of judicial magistrate Thari Mirwah and was being followed “properly”.

On the Bog forest in the same district, the house was informed 94 acres out of 306.8-acre total area of the wooded land was under encroachment.

The forest department had lodged seven FIRs against the encroachers.

The minister said the details of encroachment was well as illegal allotments made by the revenue authorities had already been reported to various forums, such as the Sindh High Court under a constitutional petition in 2012 etc.

However, he added, neither the encroachment had been vacated, nor illegal allotments had been cancelled yet by the revenue authorities.

1,739 houses built on forest land

To a question raised by Naila Munir, the house was informed that sporadic construction of houses had been carried out on forest lands. It included “some portion” of forest land in Deh Railo, Hyderabad circle, on the basis of illegal allotment in 1994 and 1995 during reconstruction process of revenue record.

Similarly, houses were constructed by the local people on some encroached portion of forest land in Deh Larh, Tebhri and Sarangsar of Chhor sub-range, district Umerkot. Cases had been registered against encroachers at the Chhor police station.

“A court decided civil suits against the forest department,” he said, adding that the prosecutor general Sindh would file appeals against the decisions before the SHC.

The minister said a total of 1,739 houses had been built on the forest land in three afforestation divisions. Some 520 houses had been built on the forest land in Dadu afforestation division, 289 in Shikarpur and 885 houses on forest lands of Larkana afforestation division.

They said that the forest officers with the help of law enforcement agencies and public vigilance committee had removed or demolished such houses, etc, from certain forest areas and lodged FIRs in 12 police stations.

To Rashid Khilji’s question, the house was told 108 irrigated plantations [artificial forests] existed in Sindh.

Total amount earmarked for afforestation in various districts of Sindh was Rs79.17m, the house was informed.

Published in Dawn, November 2nd, 2017