Authorities have a constitutional duty to act against illegal encroachments on protected forest lands, reinforcing the need for environmental protection.

ORDER

1. Issue raised in this application is encroachment over Gazette Notified Protected Forest, vide Gazette Notification dated 30.07.2021 bearing Khasra No. 73, 84 and 92 to the extent of 1.236, 0.846, 1.828 hectares respectively situated in village Chandanpura, Tehsil Huzur District Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh by Respondent No. 6. Aforementioned area was declared Protected Forest by the Government of Madhya Pradesh exercise of powers conferred under Section 29 of the Indian Forest Act, 1927 , and even after multiple government agencies have carried out numerous demarcations and observed illegal encroachment of Respondent No. 6 over Protected Forest, in the tiger movement area no action has been taken by the authorities to remove the said illegal encroachment.

2. The matter was taken up by this tribunal and a committee consisting Principal Secretary (Environment), Principal Chief Conservator of Forest, Collector Bhopal and the Member Secretary, State Pollution Control Board was constituted with direction to submit the factual and action taken report. The members of the committee visited the site and submitted the report as follows :

“During inspection, Joint Committee visited the disputed site. The details observed during the inspection are mentioned as under: -

1. The site is located at Village Chandanpura, Tehsil Huzur, District Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh. The geographical location of the site is latitude 23(cid:176) 10’ 37.1172’’ N and longitude 77(cid:176) 23’ 21.2604’’ E.

2. The gate of Jagran Lake City University is on the north east of the site.

3. An existing bitumen road connects the Jagran Lake City University for access. The road passes through revenue Forest land. Jagran Lake City University is having only one approach road.

4. The surroundings of the access road and the main entry of the university are surrounded by forest land.

5. One “Nagar Van” developed by Forest department is situated adjacent to the University campus on south side of the main entrance of university.

6. The forest area is having very thick plantation and dense forest.

7. The Forest department officials provided the map which shows the hatched region as encroached land and had shown the committee members the encroached land which is Forest land and currently the University is having its entrance gate and approach road

8. This encroached area by the University is having green belt with ornamental plantation. No building construction is observed except the main gate, security hut and the entrance road.

9. The adjacent area which is presently in possession of the Forest department is secured by a 12 feet high wire mesh which separates the Forest land from the said encroached land by the University.

10. Within the campus of University the ornamental plants and green belt is developed all around the campus.

Information provided by the Forest Department

In references to the present petition, information was sought from the Forest department. Forest department vide letter no. 5067 dated 25/04/2024 has provided the information. The copy of letter is enclosed as Annexure III. The main points of this communication are mentioned as under:-

1.1 The encroachment in the past was found on the khasra number 73 by 1.236 hectares, on the khasra number 84 by 0.846 hectares and on the khasra number 92 by 1.828 hectares, totaling 3.91 hectares.

1.2 In the appeal case no. 08/Appeal/2019-20 in the court of Tehsildar Revenue T.T. Nagar, Bhopal, a joint action was taken and encroachment of area 1.042 hectares