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| EPG, Wildlife Deptt lock horns over illegal encroachment of Hokersar wetland | | |
Saahil Suhail
Early Times Report
Srinagar, Feb 3: A day after ‘Early Times’ report, the Srinagar based Environmental Policy Group (EPG) and Wildlife Department were locking horns over the illegal encroachment of Hokersar wetland.
On Wednesday, Wildlife Warden Wetlands Kashmir responding to Early Times report titled ‘Hokersar loses 20000 kanals of land to encroachers, set to lose Ramsar status’ claimed that the Hokersar wetland was recently demarcated by a joint team of Revenue, Forest Demarcation Division, Forest PI Division and Wildlife Department and the digitally demarcated and delineated map arrived at is signed by all the stakeholder department.“By virtue of the generated map on GIS platform Hokersar wetland comprises 13.54 Sqkms i.e. 1354 hectares (27080 kanals) of land within the demarcated peripheries. The extent of area is in consonance with the archives of forest demarcation record of the 1960’s from one which substantiates today’s figures as well,” Wildlife Department had said in a statement, a copy of which was emailed to Early Times.
The departments said there were some chaks inside the Hokersar wetland reserve at the time of its notification which continues to be verified and authenticated by the revenue officials as on today.
In the same statement, the department surprisingly admitted that they have started the process of issuing notices to illegal encroachers and they have started demarcating the wetland physically by installing the demarcation pillars on the peripheral limits.
On the other hand, the Environmental Policy Group (EPG) also responded to Wildlife department and rejected the statement issued by the Wildlife Warden Wetlands Kashmir and said that it was a fact that large area of the Wetland has been encroached upon with the connivance of the officials of the Wildlife Department.
“In the Public Interest Litigation ( PIL) filed by Environmental Policy Group titled during the year 2017 . The Division Bench of High Court of Jammu & Kashmir issued the order for demarcation of Wetlands and wildlife Conservation Reserves in 2017 after EPG filled Public Interest Litigation ( PIL) titled Environmental Policy Group vs Union of India & others. However even after the lapse of 3 years the department hasn’t yet submitted the demarcation report supported by GI maps,” Faiz Baksh Convenor- Environmental Policy Group(EPG) said in a statement.
He said that the Division Bench of the High Court of J&K issued series of landmark orders and directions to various Departments including the Commissioner Secretary, Department of Ecology, Environment and Forests, Government of J&K to complete the Demarcation Process of all Protected Area Network across Kashmir Valley and in this regards a detailed order was passed by the High Court of J&K dated 11.09.2017 stating a time bound Demarcation of all National Parks, Wildlife Sanctuaries, Conservation Reserves and Wetland Reserves, with special reference to Hokersar Wetland Reserve.
EPG said that it is astonishing to note that hundreds of locals from the Hokersar area filed a Writ Petition staking claim to the encroached land under their possession.
The group demanded a high level enquiry by the Anti-Corruption Bureau or any other appropriate agency to probe into illegal encroachment of wetlands.
Faiz Bakshi said that the Environmental Policy Group (EPG) will file an application before the Chief Justice of High Court of J&K to seek the detailed compliance from the Department about the implementation of the orders in letter and spirit. |
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