Uttarakhand forest dept demolishes illegal tombs and encroachments along UP and HP borders

The Uttarakhand forest department bulldozed two of the 21 illegally built tombs. Next, it would vacate the land occupied by 600 encroachers on the Uttarakhand-Himachal Pradesh border.

Dehradun:As part of the Uttarakhand government's drive to remove illegal structures in the areas bordering Uttar Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh, the forest department on Monday ran bulldozers on several illegal tombs and encroachments near Shakti Nagar where the government proposed three solar power plants. Earlier, the department had issued orders for vacating the encroachments and illegal religious structures. Later on, it even snapped the electricity connections in this area.

Even after this, when the land was not vacated, the department started running bulldozers. Of the 21 illegally built tombs in the area, bulldozers mowed down two today. Next, bulldozers would be used for vacating the 600 encroachments that are on 14 km of land in the Uttarakhand-Himachal Pradesh border area. In 2009, the Supreme Court ordered the Uttarakhand government to remove all encroachments on the bordering areas. The matter, however, got delayed as encroachers filed petitions in lower courts and High Court. In the meantime, governments changed, but encroachments were not removed.

Initially, the demolition work was scheduled to begin on Sunday, but it was deferred after some organisations opposed it. The work was started in the presence of forest department officials on Monday morning. The officials asked reporters and members of the organisations not to visit the site while demolition was underway.

When contacted, the forest department officials refused to comment. They said that some people were unnecessarily politicising the issue. Despite Supreme Court's order, encroachments have remained on the forest property. In Garhwal and Kumaon, there are over 100 illegal religious structures. Similar efforts were taken in Uttar Pradesh earlier to mow down illegal religious structures.