Sindh Forest Department could retrieve only 160 acres during 6-day operation
In Hyderabad district 836 acre and in Tando Muhammad Khan 104 acre forest land is illegally occupied by the influential people
Hyderabad: The Forest Department of Sindh has utterly failed to retrieve the forest land from the illegal possession of the influential people in Miani Forest of Hyderabad district where a six-day operation was carried out recently.
Only 160 acres were retrieved during the operation, which started on January 18, was headed by Divisional Forest Officer Sannaullah Buledi, sources in forest department confided.
The total forest area of Hyderabad Afforestation Division is 25910 acre. The forest area of the division falls in three civil districts namely Hyderabad, Tando Muhammad Khan and Tando Allahyar. The Hyderabad district has a vast area under forest, as according to official figures some 23666.38 acres are the forest land there while Tando Muhammad Khan has 1926.62 acres and Tando Allahyar has only 317 acres.
The area under encroachment in these districts is: Hyderabad 836 acres and Tando Muhammad Khan 104 acres while Tando Allahyar is free of any encroachment, as the officials claimed.
The Forest Department had launched the operation to get the illegally occupied forest lands vacated in compliance of the orders of Supreme Court of Pakistan in Constitutional Petition no. 52/2018 and Sindh High Court, Sukkur bench in connection with Constitutional Petition no. 1115/2009.
The District Administration and Police of Hyderabad had extended full cooperation to the Forest Department for retrieval operation in Miani Riverine forest.
The operation continued for 6-days and during which an area of 160 acres had been retrieved from illegal possession of people besides destroying 32 houses and dismantling 13 irrigation bores.
The tractors and heavy machinery was used during the encroachment vacation operation in Miani Riverine Forest where wheat and sugarcane crops were illegally raised by encroachers.
When Sindh Courier contacted DFO Sannaullah Buledi on phone for updates about the operation and the hindrances faced during the operation, he avoided to divulge any detail. However, it was learnt that he appeared in Sindh High Court during the hearing of petition and submitted the report about the recent operation.
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