The Forest Department is stepping up its two-year-old effort to complete installing cairn stones to mark out forest boundaries in a bid to distinguish the Reserve Forest boundaries from the patta lands in the fringe areas.
Talking to The Hindu , District Forest Officer M. Senthil Kumar said that installation of cairn stones under an initiative called ‘Consolidation of Forest’ was started in 2012-13 and during that year as many as 1036 stones were installed. In 2013-14, 754 stones were installed and in the last year 700 were used. Now, this year the department plans to take up the installation of remaining 300 stones.
Cairn stones are being installed at places which are identified as problematic and vulnerable to encroachment. Areas were prioritised and works were taken up.
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On a concrete structure, stones measuring up to three feet are installed and at places details such as latitude, longitude and Above Mean Sea Level measurements are also inscribed on them.
Coimbatore has 698 sq km of forest area and the forest boundary runs for about 260 km.
Cairn stones are installed in a straight line, with one stone for every 200 metres in linear distance. Wherever there is a curve, additional stones are used. One stone should be visible from another.
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