10 village chiefs asked to prove ownership
Source: Chronicle News Service

Imphal, May 21 2022: The divisional forest officer, Bishnupur forest division has served show-cause notice to chiefs of 10 villages located inside Tairenpokpi-Tamenglong protected forest area to submit relevant documents to prove their ownership of the villages.

The notice dated May 18 was served to chiefs of Kotlen, S Laijang, Longa Koireng (plan), Phoijang, Thanglongbung, Bi-jang, Lonjang, Namthanjang, Aithu and Lhongchin villages.

The notice said that the villages are situated inside Tairenpokpi-Tamenglong Protected Forest, and asked the village chiefs to submit relevant documents in support of their claim of ownership of the villages within a week's time so that they may be set aside from the protected forest area.

It further stated that failure to submit relevant documents will result in treating them as encroacher.

Mention may be made that the government, in an attempt to evict encroach ers from Usoipokpi-Waithou protected forest area, conducted a joint survey by revenue and forest departments on April 25 .

During the survey, 16 house owners were found in possession of valid land holding documents issued by the revenue department.

Earlier in April 2020 too, the government had evicted several encroachers from Lamlongei and Langol reserved forest areas.

Emergence of new villages in reserved and protected forest areas is becoming a major issue in the state in the past few years.

As per report of the ministry of environment, the state has 37 reserved forest areas measuring 984.25 square kilometres.

The report also identified 3,878.85 square kilometres out of a total of 45,377 square kilometres of reserved forest area in the northeast region as encroached areas.

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