MYSORE: The top officials of the Forest Department who met with members of the Legislative Committee on Government Assurances on Wednesday made a firm argument that the clearing and prevention of encroachments of forestland, the protection of forest wealth, and conservation of wildlife would be tough unless the long-pending posts of forest guards and watchers in the Forest Department as well as in the national parks and wildlife sanctuaries were filled on priority.

`Immediate need'

The Forest Department immediately needed 1,360 full-time guards and watchers for handling the increasing responsibilities of the department, the officials told the committee during a high-level meeting at Aranya Bhavan here.

Committee chairman K.T. Srikante Gowda said that the Government was in the process of appointing 700 ground-duty staff for the Forest Department.

Promise

He promised to bring their request for 1,360 more staff to the notice of the Government for its immediate consideration.

The officials told the committee that the Forest Department had not allowed for any discrimination between influential and poor people while evicting encroachers from the forestlands.

Principal Chief Conservator of Forests Dileep Kumar asked the committee to give a clear message that encroachments of forestlands would not be taken lightly since the eviction of encroachers usually triggered unrest and sometimes made it inevitable for the Forest Department to use force to clear encroachments.

Increase in area

Committee member Arun Machaiah said that the area of national parks and game sanctuaries had increased because of the transfer of revenue land to the Forest Department. But the former residents of the revenue land had not been suitably rehabilitated, thus leading to several complications. "This is the ground reality which we need to accept and find a solution to. There are legal hurdles in some cases and in others the settlers have clear title deeds of the land being given to them during the British Raj," he said.

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