Outrage has spread on the order of harvesting apple trees grown on forest land in Himachal Pradesh. After the court order on this matter, apple growers have described it as anti -farmer. Farmers say that these gardens were grown decades ago and the livelihood of thousands of farmers runs from these apple orchards.
Let’s know what the whole matter is.
What is the case
From 1950 to 1980, a large part of the land was recorded as ‘Shamlat’ in the revenue records in Himachal. During this period, the government gave some parts of this land to the landless for farming. In 1980, after the Forest Protection Act came into force, this entire ‘Shamlat’ land was declared forest land. However, due to lack of proper demarcation of forest land, producers, especially apple growers, had encroached on a large part.
From 1950 to 1980, a large part of the land was recorded in the revenue records in Himachal Pradesh. During this time, the government donated some parts of this land to the landless people to cultivate. When the Forest Protection Act came into force in 1980, it was also completely declared as Shamlat land. However, these lands were not properly demarcated and people encroached on a large part of the forest land. This encroachment increased in the days ahead and has now become a major problem.
How much land is encroachment on
Himachal Pradesh Horticulture Minister Jagat Singh Negi said that according to government data, more than 57000 hectares of forest land has been encroached in Himachal Pradesh. So far 80 thousand cases of encroachment have been reported, out of which 10 thousand cases have been settled. Apart from this, the total number of encroachers in the entire state is 1.63 lakhs.
The case is of the year 2014. Krishna Chandra Sarta, a resident of Jubbal in the state, approached the Himachal Pradesh High Court. He had written a letter to the Chief Justice, stating that many influential people of the state have captured and grown apple orchard in the upper parts of Shimla. The names and addresses of the encroachers were also given in that letter. Sarda said that the land of 2800 bigha forest has been converted into apple orchards. He had told that permanent structures with electricity and water connections have also been made at these encroached places.