HYDERABAD, March 7: Sindh wildlife and forests secretary Mehmood Ahmad Khan has said 25,000 to 30,000 acres of forest land is in illegal occupation of influential people.

He said these people could not be ejected from the land because of non-availability of police force.

He was talking to journalists at a forest department office here on Monday after distributing certificates among wildlife officials for outstanding performance in protecting the wildlife.

Mr Khan observed that successive governments had been reluctant in taking action and such illegal occupation had been going on for 30 to 40 years. He alleged that Dr Bahadur Dahiri, a friend of sacked revenue minister Imtiaz Ahmad Shaikh, along with other people, was behind occupation of 1,627 acres of the Kundah forest land. He added that investigations into the case were underway.

He said people who had got lands on lease had not surrendered the lands after expiry of lease. The secretary further said officials of the department were in correspondence with authorities at all levels to get police help in taking over possession of the occupied lands but the attitude of police was disappointing. However, he said, the forest department had got vacated 1,500 acres of land in Sukhpur, Nawabshah, and 600 acres in Ghotki because adequate police force had been provided on time on those occasions.

He avoided disclosing details about the alleged illegal occupation of the Kundah forest land by the sacked revenue minister and Dr Dahiri. He said "it has been established that Dr Dahiri has lion's share in that land and other parties may be involved too".

He maintained that Rangers help could not be sought directly because they acted in aid of police. However, he added, the Sindh chief minister was determined to get the land vacated.

Mr Khan said the forest ministry had moved a summary to chief minister for amendment to the Sindh Wildlife Protection Ordinance, 1972, to ban bear baiting and award punishment to those indulging in the practice.

He added that the Sindh government had also obtained financial assistance from the World Society for Protection of Animals (WSPA), a London-based NGO working against the practice.

He said in the existing laws, bear had been declared protected and thus it could not be shifted from its natural habitat anywhere else for any kind of activity. Although, he said, such animals could be confiscated but the SWPO contained no punishment for those indulging in bear baiting for fun.

He said bears found in Tando Adam, Ranipur and Dadu so far had been shifted to the Kund Park in the NWFP with assistance of the SWPO because transportation of such animals was a big task. He said with joint efforts of the wildlife department and the WSPA bear baiting had been largely reduced as in 2003-04 13 events of bear baiting were stopped.

The secretary said a raid was conducted by the wildlife staff on Nov 29, 2004, near Qaim Jatoi, Dadu, in which a bear was confiscated. He said the bear was shifted to the Kund Park under supervision of Paul Hammond, consultant of the Captive Wildlife Solutions, UK, and a WSPA representative, Fakhr-i-Abbas, on Dec 12, 2004.