About 15 acres of reserve forest land allegedly encroached by the Kota tribal people was recovered by Forest Department personnel at the Wenlock Downs Reserve Forest (RF) in Udhagai North Range of North Division Forest in The Nilgiris district, on Friday.
The portion of encroached land was at Gaugemattam and Pudumandu hamlets near Solur village. The Ranger of Udhagai North Range K. Saravanakumar who headed the retrieval of encroached land said that there was 14,533.86 acres land in the area and 9,465.38 acres of that portion was earmarked as RF.
He said that another 2,483.33 acres was notified under Section 26 of the Forest Act — proposed to be announced as RF. The remaining 2,585.15 acres was earmarked as village grazing ground, which could be used only for grazing cattle and not for other activities.
“But the tribal people, with financial support from a few major farmers, have illegally used hundreds of acres of reserve forest and grazing ground, for cultivating vegetables,” the Ranger said and added that a case in this connection was also pending before the Human Rights Commission, due to which it has not been recovered.
Mr. Saravanakumar said that there were fresh allegations that Kota tribal people were trying to encroach upon marsh lands and water courses for irrigation, following which the team went to the spot on Friday.
They seized fencing wires (which were solar powered) and fishnet covers used to prevent wild animals from entering their illegal cultivation lands.
The Ranger said that on doing so, the wild animals would not have had water to drink and this would have resulted in man-animal conflicts. The villagers were also using diesel powered pump sets to draw water for irrigation and this, coupled with use of fertilizers, had reduced flow of water on the natural course and also polluted it.
Recalling that 12 farmers from The Nilgiris who were funding the tribal people to encroach upon RF land for agriculture were arrested about a month ago, forest officials have warned stringent action persons engaging in similar exercises.
