AURANGABAD: Close to 5,000 hectare of forest land is currently under encroachment in Aurangabad and Jalna districts. Officials said efforts are being made to reclaim the forest land.
In the Marathwada region, only 4.5% of the total geographical area is forested. Moreover, this area faces water scarcity and inadequate rainfall.
In Aurangabad district, about 92,852 hectare is under forest land and in Jalna it is 9,996 hectare. As per the figures obtained, forest land accounts for over 1,600 hectare in Aurangabad taluka, 563 hectare in Khultabad taluka, 190 hectare in Soyegaon, 338 hectare in Sillod, 118 hectare in Ajanta, about 500 hectare in Vaijapur, 540 hectare in Kannad, 207 hectare in Nagad, 614 hectare in Jalna (north) and 82 hectare in Jalna (south).
Authorities maintained that serious efforts are being to reclaim the lands, which, in most cases, are under litigation due to claims made by some local residents, villagers and even tribals.
Assistant conservator of forest Arun Patil told TOI that only people able to prove that they have been tilling a particular section of the forest land for at least three generations or 75 years, have valid and legitimate claims.
“The tribal claiming ownership of the forest land need to have some evidence in the form of offence registered against their predecessors or some receipt from forest department etc.” he said
Patil added that recently, about 500 hectare of forest land around Kannad, Vaijapur were reclaimed by turning down petitions and claims made on these lands.
Aurangabad district has a total forest area of 5.61%, while Jalna has about 1.4% of land under forestation.
Senior forest official confirmed that at some of the locations, people have not only encroached the land but have also constructed pucca houses, making it further difficult to reclaim the land.
