Indore: Forest ranger Mahesh Ahirwar was suspended for negligence and irresponsible behaviour for allowing 12 hectares of forest land on Mhow- Mandleshwar Road to be encroached by farmers right under his nose.
Free Press had raised this issue following which an inquiry had been launched by Bhopal officials.
The encroachment had been noticed and complaints raised by legal activist Abhijeet Pandey. Initially, a local forest department team was asked to probe the allegations, but they did not do their job properly. Subsequently, a Bhopal team headed by forest ranger Sunil Saxena investigated the various spots on Mhow – Mandleshwar road and found that encroachment had indeed taken place, and the report was submitted to PCCF Rajesh Shrivastava. Ranger Ahirwar's suspension order was finally issued on Saturday by CK Ninima, chief conservator of forest Indore.
Sharing details about the encroachments, Pandey said, “There are 12 such marked spots of the forest department, where land has already been cleared and prepared for cultivation.” The land might have even been cultivated for previous as well.
“Now, the farmers are preparing the land for next harvest and using the land for growing crops in monsoon,” Pandey said. He added that each of the 12 spots has at least 5 to 10 hectares area each.
“There are many areas, where an entire hill protected under forest area has been cut down and used by farmers for cultivation,” Pandey said. He explained that the 12 identified spots are already marked by forest and yet they allowed encroachment.
“There are over 100 such spots on Mhow – Mandleshwar road which comes under forest land and is encroached, but since they don’t have forest marking points it would be very difficult to prove,” Pandey said.
