Palghar: Forest department takes action against encroachment

Forest department officials demolishing illegal structures

Officials from the Palghar forest department have begun removing unauthorised structures built by encroachers on forest land.

Range Forest Officer (RFO) Rita Vaidya from Mandvi Range said, "On Friday our Mandvi Range staff, along with the forest department team, carried out an operation to remove unauthorised structures that have come up on forest land."

The encroachments comprised houses erected in the protected forests of Bapane village (Survey No. 156) and Bilalpada village (Survey No. 94). The forest department officials also demolished an unauthorised cattle shed in the protected forest of Virar (Survey No. 398) and seized the land. Additionally, unauthorised huts in Virar (Survey No. 1135) were also removed. With the exercise, an estimated 10,000 sq ft of forest land has been cleared and cases have been registered against the offenders under the Indian Forest Act of 1927. Officials are carrying out more investigations.

The team that carried out the demolitions

The operation was carried out under the guidance of RFO Rita Vaidya, with the assistance of Forest Guard Ankush Bhosale, and forest department staff and officials including Rakesh Jagale, Prabhakar Kudalkar, Padmakar Kendre, Santosh Patil, Pankaj Yadav, Kishor Rajput, Swati Darade, Sindhu Rathod, Bibhishan Dhanwa, Sanjay Sambar, Angad Kendre, Ashish Bhore and Vijay Raut.