LARKANA: Over 12,000 acres of forest land in Larkana division could not be retrieved from encroachers despite a strong will and determination expressed by the provincial government and completion of all legal formalities to take on the occupants.

The forest department, under immense pressure from the government, identified both the occupied lands and their illegal occupants, besides completing formalities to help the government retrieve the lands, but revenue officials and police seem not ready to lay hands on the ‘influential’ and ‘powerful’ occupants.

Sources in the forest department say the ‘influential’ occupants of these lands are either sitting and former lawmakers and political figures or the heavily armed dacoits who appeared to be more powerful than the police.

They have been maintaining their illegal hold on their respective small and big portions of the identified forest lands for decades and all efforts made in the past to retrieve the lands have proved to be an exercise in futility so far, according to the sources.

The lands in the kutcha area are mostly occupied by various gangs of dacoits who have their hideouts within the area of their operation. These areas mostly located across the Indus are inaccessible for police, as well as revenue or other government officials.

“That’s why, we cannot give an exact figure of encroached upon forest land,” says Arshad Kamariyo, the divisional forest officer.

His predecessor, Aijaz Ali Bhatti, who is the Forest Vigilance Committee secretary, says the process of retrieving the illegally occupied forest land could not be started in the division because the revenue department and police were not ready to come along for any reason. “This encourages the encroachers not only to keep occupying the state property but also grab more lands,” he believes.

“Could you imagine that only two forest guards are deployed in the Amrot forest spread over an area of 8,000 acres; how can we protect several thousands of acres from encroachers with quite a few guards being at our disposal?” he asked.

Sources say that forest officers attending the vigilance committee’s meetings have always been complaining of unwillingness of the police and revenue departments to practically help retrieve the lands.

The committee is headed by the Larkana district and session judge.

The FIRs registered against encroachers are gathering dust and the situation has remained unchanged. Unscrupulous revenue officials are continuing to change the forest land record, the sources said.

Mr Kamaraio said that recently some revenue officials made bogus entries of 192 acres in Ghanghrko forest showing a private person as owner of the state properties.

Mr Bhatti cited an example where 150 acres of land were illegally occupied and a litigation process started in 1989. The forest department got the case settled through the Supreme Court in 2012 but the land could not be retrieved so far, he said.

Another big problem the forest department faces is agro-forest land. The Sindh government under a plan offered lease of 20 per cent of forest land to eligible farmers for a period of five years for cultivation and aforestation purposes. However, the leasees neither made the mandatory payment to the department nor did they vacate the land in their possession, said Mr Kamario.

The 1,600 acres of land offered under the agro-forest land leasing programme is still in their possession though the leases have expired, he added.

Forests are the natural flood combatants but rampant cutting of trees in the illegally occupied forest lands not only exposes the territory and population to a possible disaster but also disturbs the entire echo system and wildlife, he said.

There are 18 forests currently under the administrative control of the Larkana forest division. They include Amrot (8,045 acres), Madeji (8,892 acres), Aqil, Naoabad, Gaji Dero, Sharifpur, Hassan Wahan, Ghanghrko, Tatri and Aghani.

The revenue department is bound to make entries of the forest land in the record of rights in accordance with the 1887 gazette notification issued by the then Bombay government.

The Larkana divisional forest office had been established in April 1947 with K.G. Qureshi being its head. The division had 49,602 acres under its control and bifurcated into irrigation plantation (12,655 acres) and riverine forest (36.947 acres).

Published in Dawn, July 29th, 2014