NEW DELHI: India's forest department reported that the country's massive forests are facing a new threat, this time from illegal human settlement encroachment that could see much of the green in the country disappear if the government does not take action. Already, India's forests have been ravaged from mining, but the new report published by the government, shows that nearly 1.25 million hectares of fragile areas are being taken over by human populations. Environmental activist and government consultant in Andhra Pradesh Dev Rajeev told Bikyamasr.com that “what we need is a public campaign to educate people, but also a development of our local infrastructure if India is to overcome this problem.” He said that much of the issue is the result of a lack of cheap housing that forces homeless citizens to look for shelter wherever they can find it. “And forests are a great place to escape poor conditions.” Andhra Pradesh, Assam and Chhattisgarh are the worst culprits in this regard, the report said. In Assam, 259,700 hectares of forest areas are under encroachment, while around 256,000 hectares of forest land in Andhra Pradesh has been illegally occupied by humans, it said. An estimated 1,18,494 hectares of forest areas are under encroachment in Chhattisgarh where Maoist insurgents and legal and illegal mining in biodiversity hotspots are very active. Forests in the Western Ghat region states, including Kerala, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Gujarat are also under threat of encroachment. Over 85,388 hectares of forests in Maharashtra have been illegally occupied, the document continued. Forest areas in Karnataka (96,014 hectares), Kerala (44,420 hectares), Gujarat (34,791 hectares) and Tamil Nadu (14,352 hectares) have been occupied by violators. Large-scale such violation of forests has been reported from many other states including Jammu and Kashmir (13,360 hectares), Odisha (78,505 hectares), Tripura (47,758 hectares), Arunachal Pradesh (58,553 hectares) and Uttar Pradesh (26,795 hectares). Interestingly, not a single case of violation has been reported from Bihar. The data is prepared based on the information provided by the state governments in 2010 and 2011 and 2012. “The central government has issued instruction to all states to take time-bound action for the eviction of illegal encroachment of forest lands,” an official said. For now, the battle over the environment is one that has many in the country concerned by the government's apparent lack of movement to ensure forest and natural wildlife preservation, but Rajeev believes there is a growing movement that is finally getting the attention of the authorities. “A few years ago the government would not have asked us to participate in any discussion, now we are almost always part of the debate on what to do, so this is a positive step that we hope will continue,” he added.
