Hyderabad: 22 lakh acres to be added to forest area

Hyderabad: The forest department has stated that about 22 lakh acres of forest land has to be reconciled with revenue records as vast chunks of these lands are under illegal occupation. Besides, the forest lands have been classified under different names in revenue records.

The government has decided to constitute special task force teams comprising forest, revenue and police personnel in all the districts to conduct a survey of forest lands and reconcile them with revenue records.

During a video conference, Mr Ajay Misra, principal secretary, forests, told Chief Secretary S.K. Joshi that in various districts vast chunks of lands which had been notified as forest land had been classified under different names in revenue records.

This has become an obstacle for the department to evict encroachers. He said 22 lakh acres of forest land had to be reconciled with revenue records.

Mr Misra said the problem was mainly seen in Bhupalapalli, Asifabad, Mahbubabad, Adilabad and Nagarkurnool districts.

Mr Rajeshwar Tiwari, principal secretary, revenue, told the video conference that the state government had issued guidelines for the survey of forest lands and appointed 212 surveyors. They would be available from the second week of January 2019.

Mr Joshi directed the authorities to commence the survey after the surveyors joined  duty.