The fast shrinking reserve forest of Tezu
[ Amar Sangno ]
ITANAGAR, Nov 28: Encroachment of government land has become an endemic issue in Arunachal Pradesh, despite the authorities’ reluctance to acknowledge it.
Planned towns like Bomdila, Seppa, Itanagar, Ziro, Aalo, Pasighat, and Tezu have already been deformed.
The towns’ alleys, streets, and open spaces have shrunk significantly. Once-wide alleys have been squeezed into narrow passageways, while airfields and helipads are being encroached on by multistoried buildings, compromising air traffic safety measures. The reserve forests are shrinking fast, even before being officially de-reserved.
The Tezu town reserve forest, an extension of Shivaji Nagar, is one of the glaring examples of the conflict between human settlers (whom the authority terms illegal encroachers) and the authority, resulting in fast shrinking of the reserve forest areas.
The Tezu reserve forest area covered 690 hectares, according to the Tezu divisional forest officer. It is located in the vicinity of Tezu township. The Tezu DFO officially identified 70 hectares of the reserve forest area as being encroached on or illegally occupied.
Sources in Tezu claimed that more than 70 houses have been built so far inside the reserve area. It is reported that encroachment is rampantly being carried out just a stone’s throw away from Tezu divisional forest. However, the forest department sought to pull wool over the rampant encroachment happening in its backyard.
When The Arunachal Times sought the exact data of illegal houses built in the reserve area, the Tezu DFO was unable to provide records, stating that it may not be possible to furnish the exact number of the households build so far inside the reserve area.
Tezu township was established in 1967, and in the following year, a formal notification was issued and the same was issued in 1977, demarcating the boundaries.
The illegal settlers disputed the forest department’s claim, stating that the reserve area was their ancestral cultivating land and they had been cultivating the land for the last 32 years, even before it was declared a reserve forest. The settlers also claimed that the reserve area was declared without taking consent from the landowners.
However, this daily has accessed a copy of the representation given to the Lohit deputy commissioner by the people of Loiliang village on 6 November, 2017, in which they nullified the illegal settlers’ claim that area was under their possession for the last 30-45 years.
“The district administration declared some portion of Loilang as Tezu station reserve forest in 1976-’77.Thereafter, we had confined our cultivation in the present area, known as Loiliang project area,” it stated.
The representation further stated that in 1978, Lt Guv KAA Raja visited Loiliang and made the people aware of the benefits of the then proposed Tezu station reserve forest.
“He made a promise that the Tezu station reserve forest is meant for local people of Loiliang village. Accordingly, the Tezu station reserved forest was notified under the relevant Act in the year of 1981,after due consultation with local people of Loiliang village” the villagers added, disputing the settlers’claims.
It went on to claim that encroachment on Tezu station reserve forest started in 2009. Initially, the encroachers stationed non-APST people in the land. It was evident from the report issued under the socioeconomic caste survey, 2011.
In June 2018, The Arunachal Times had reported that the then deputy commissioner of Lohit, Karma Leki,had issued a show cause notice to the power (electrically) department and the public health engineering & water supply (PHE&WS) department for defying the district administration’s order by providing water and electricity connectivity to illegal settlers in the Tezu station reserve forest area.
Leki had issued a notice, directing the executive engineers of the Tezu PHE&WS department and the Tezu/Namsai power (electrical) department to ensure that the residents of the area had proper land allotment and NOCs from the district administration prior to providing water supply and electricity connection in those areas. The move was to thwart rampant encroachment in the reserve forest area.
There were claims from various quarters of the district that the departments’ blatant defiance of the administration’s order was a deliberate attempt to validate encroached land in the area. However, the electrical department clarified that electricity connection had been provided there purely on the basis of the 2011 socioeconomic census. A similar claim was made by the then PHED&WS official,stating that no single point of water supply connection had been given to the controversial area.
The rampant encroachment had already stalled the setting up of the proposed AYUSH medical college in the area. Neither the Lohit DC nor the Tezu DFO was available for comment on the development.
Arunachal has 60 reserves forests, which cover a total area of 16203.58 square kilometres and 19.35 percent of the total geographical area of the state.
