Remove forest encroachments on over three acres, officials told

Minister for Forests Arvind Limbavali on Friday directed his department officials to get forest encroachments on more than three acres removed immediately.

He was speaking at a meeting of officials from the Mangaluru Circle of the department here.

Mr. Limbavali further asked officials to give factual report about deemed forest after local inspection. Then only, proper action could be initiated, he said.

Dakshina Kannada with abundant forest cover provides good opportunity for forest development.

The Minister said that there was a delay in paying compensation to victims of man-animal conflict and asked officials to expedite the process. He asked officials to submit a proposal for the required funds to relocate people still residing within the Kudremukh National Park jurisdiction.

Chief Conservator of Forests of Mangaluru Circle Prakash S. Netalkar, Deputy Conservator of Forest V. Karikalan, Assistant Conservator of Forest N. Subrahmanya, Range Forest Officer P. Sridhar and others were present.

Criticised

Meanwhile, General Secretary of National Environment Conservation Federation Shashidhar Shetty, who waited for the Minister to discuss issues with regard to forests, criticised him when he was not given a hearing.

Mr. Shetty said that Ministers not listening to the general public was not a good trend. Being public servants, they were accountable to the general public from whose taxes the government runs, he said.