Bijayraj Poudel, director, Far West Forest Directorate, said a huge chunk of the forest land has been encroached upon and the problem is just growing. [break]
“About 30,000 hectors of the forest area has already been encroached upon by squatters and the so-called victims of natural disasters,” he said. “It is difficult to remove them as they have political protection.”
According to the directorate, 20,653 hectors of forest in Kailali, 4,366 hectors in Kanchanpur, 2,090 hectors in Dadeldhura and 300 hectors in Doti have been encroached upon.
Poudel informed that the directorate has collected the details of the encroached forest areas. It also informed that it would soon take steps to evict the encroachers. According to Poudel, the total forest area in the Far West is 687,400 hectors.
“We have tried to move out the encroachers from several areas time and again, but political representatives come to their rescue,” he complained.
However, according to Assistant Forest Officer Rajesh Shah not only the political parities, but several forest officers and staff themselves are involved in forest encroachment.
The directorate stated it is not possible for the forest staff themselves to reach out to the areas to stop the encroachment due to security threats.
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