MURREE: About 50 kanals forest land has been retrieved by the Town Municipal Administration (TMA) during its ongoing anti-encroachment campaign but still 2,000 kanals is under illegal occupation of influential people in different parts of the resort town.

The encroached land is located in the municipal forests, Gora Gali, Samli and other areas as confirmed by Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) Amir Sohail Malik.

About 13,000 kanals was under encroachment till 2010 when on the direction of the then chief minister Shahbaz Sharif, a third party validation was carried. The demarcation of the land at that time showed that 12,672 kanals of the forest department had been encroached by the land mafia, locals and influential people.

Housing projects launched by different government departments were also alleged to have encroached on the forest land at Chattar and Barroha and after years of litigation the forest department won the case and was handed over hundreds of kanals, the DFO told Dawn.

But still about 2,000 kanals is under illegal occupation of influential people in alleged connivance of the forest department officials.

Hafiz Saeed Ahmad, the president of RADO which works for environmental protection, told Dawn that on the one hand the government had launched a campaign to plant five billion trees across the country in five years and on the other thousands of kanals had been encroached by influential people and the departments concerned were unable to retrieve it.

Besides, lush green forests in Murree have been converted into a concrete jungle, he added.

Asad Iqbal Abbasi Advocate, the president of Green Society, said the government should take strict action to retrieve the forest land irrespective of political affiliation and pressure. He said the ratio of cutting trees and encroaching on the forest land for the construction of buildings in Murree was damaging tourist attraction in the town.

DFO Malik said his department would take action against all those encroaching state land irrespective of their political or other influences.

The department needs support and help of the police and the local administration and for this purpose negotiations are being held with the TMA. He said out of the total 2,000 kanals encroached land about 1,100 kanals was under litigation.

Those who have encroached the forest land have obtained stay orders from courts and the forest department is pursuing the cases despite its limited resources, he said.

The DFO said a campaign had been launched by the department on the direction of former Punjab chief minister Shahbaz Sharif during which 11,000 kanals was retrieved.

Published in Dawn, November 6th, 2018