Vizianagaram forest officials recover Rs 300 crore land from encroachers

Visakhapatnam: The Vizianagaram forest officials recovered Rs 300 crore worth 550 acres of reserve forest land from encroachers who turned the forest land into their own property. They assessed the crop on the forest land and planned to auction the yield. The auction would take place in the first week of March.Interestingly, around 31 encroachers occupied an entire forest block of 212.06 hectares of reserve forest in the Shikaruganji forest beat in the Koduru reserve forest block in Badangi mandal of the Vizianagaram forest range. Forest officials served notices to the encroachers after identifying the occupation in Dec last year. The district forest officer, Reddy Kondala Rao, issued confiscation orders and put up warning boards three days ago. They found that encroachers cultivated horticultural crops and planted 45,700 trees.According to forest officials, encroachers divided all 550 acres and cultivated it with an illegal power supply for the past 15 and a half years. The encroachers cultivated mango, teak, cashew, red sanders, acacia and neem trees.The Vizianagaram forest range officer (FRO), Birlangi Ram Naresh, said that encroachers from Akulakatta, Ramachandrapuram, Brahmanavalasa, Koduru and other villages occupied the reserve forest, which is illegal according to the AP Forest Act 1967 and the Forest Protection Act 1980. Forest officials found encroachment in two other places: A person from Pedabattivalasa village in Pusapatirega mandal occupied 2.57 acres in Kumili Reserve Forest, and another 36 acres of Kilurupeta village occupied another 2.47 acres. All these lands were recovered by the forest officials.