District Forest Office, which was looking after the case, gave its verdict in the favor of the community forests on Friday.
The land mafias for long had been claiming possession over 50 bigha of land belonging to Shankarnagar Community forest at Shankarnagar VDC and 32 Bigha of land belonging to Karahiya Community forest at Karahiya VDC. [break]
Dipak Gyawali, chief of the district forest office, said that decision was taken after extensive deliberations and investigation.
Now, both the plots of land, including parts of which have been registered as private property and two bighas of land registered as the road, would come under the ownership of the community forests concerned.
Gyawali further informed that the decision to this effect was made as per Section 16(1) of Forest Act-2049 (1993), which bars a person from registering land covered by any national forest. The section 16(2) of the Act states that even if such land is registered as a private property, such registration will be annulled.
Gyawali father informed that his office has already written to the Survey Department and Land Revenue Office to cancel the records of the land transferred to private owners.
A commission set up in 1998 to resolve the problems of landless settlers had illegally registered the forest land in the names of 72 locals, including Naryan Prasad Sapkota, Nara Bahadur Gaha, Udaya Gurung and Yubaraj Sapkota. The locals of Shankarnagar and Kahariya had moved the court following the decision.
Once the case reached the Supreme Court, the apex court had asked the concerned district forest office to settle the case after the investigation.
Dil Bahadur Karki, the chairman of Shankarnagar Community forest, hailed the decision of the district forest office, "though the decision came very late".
Gyawli also informed that they would file a case against the forest land encroachers. As per the Section 50 of the Forest Act, if convicted, the encroachers would face two years imprisonment and a fine of ten thousand rupees.
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