* High-level meeting on May 12 to discuss the issue
By Kartik Lokhande
Following
the annoucement of the previous Government that thousands of hectares
of zudpi jungle land would be freed for development, people in Vidarbha
region were very happy. They were left disappointed on learning that the
zudpi jungle to be ‘freed for development’ was only fragmented
stretches not useful for forest management. Now, there is one more
disappointment for people of Vidarbha -- Field Officers are facing
problems while dealing with the problems pertaining to even this zudpi
jungle land.
Field Officers of Revenue Department and Forest
Department both are facing problems while deciding the proposals for
deforestation of identified fragmented zudpi jungle land. “The biggest
problem is that the field-level officers are expected to prepare GPS
maps of the identified sites and then ensure that they are superimposed
on the topo-sheets, so that the portion of zudpi jungle under
encroachment or farming use could be identified exactly,” said an
official.
The officials sent to prepare GPS maps at different sites
are facing another problem. Each of the GPS devices they handle can
store only up to 10 maps. As a result, if an official from Nagpur leaves
for a spot to prepare GPS map for a fragmented piece of zudpi jungle
land, he has to come back to Nagpur once he has got 10 maps. For
remaining work pertaining to the same piece of land, he has to visit the
place again. At some places, there exists a zudpi jungle stretch of 3
acres between two farm-lands on prevailing maps. However, presently on
ground owners of both the adjacent farm-lands have covered some part of
this zudpi jungle land, leaving less than 3 acres of zudpi jungle land.
“In such a situation, how could we finalise the proposals received?”
wondered a field-level officer.
Some time ago, with the initiative
of Anoop Kumar, Divisional Commissioner, a workshop was organised for
officers dealing with the subject, to enlighten them with procedures for
deforestation of fragmented zudpi jungle land. Later on, field-level
officers started the work of preparing proposals. But, as they went
deeper with the proposals, they started facing the problems. To discuss
these issues and try to find out a solution, a high-level meeting has
been organised at Van Bhavan here on May 12 at 11 am. The top-level
officers of Revenue and Forest Departments will attend the meeting, and
discuss the issues threadbare, it is learnt.
As far as Nagpur
Division is concerned, so far, a total of 127 proposals have been
prepared for deforestation of identified zudpi jungle land. These
proposals include 773.46 hectares of zudpi jungle land identified for
deforestation, as it is found ‘not suitable’ for forestry purposes.
These include 16 proposals involving 475.73 hectares of land in Nagpur
district, and 111 proposals involving 297.74 hectares in Gadchiroli
district.
Proposals for deforestation of zudpi jungle land
found not suitable for forestry purposes
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District/Tehsil Proposals Area involved
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Nagpur
Umred 02 44.35 hectares
Katol 02 170.09 hectares
Saoner 12 200.11 hectares
Mouda -- 61.18 hectares
Gadchiroli
Gadchiroli -- 65 hectares
Wadsa Desaiganj 13 104.30 hectares
Aheri 52 24.70 hectares
Etapalli 46 17.48 hectares
Kurkheda -- 75.16 hectares
Chamorshi -- 11.09 hectares
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Total 127 773.46 hectares
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(April 28, 2015)
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