Hero Image

Sambalpur: Eviction mooted to clear hilltop shrine

Sambalpur: Encroachments in the Budharaja Reserve Forest, which is located in the heart of Sambalpur city, will be evicted. The forest department recently launched a survey to identify encroached land in the reserve forest.

Official sources said the forest officials are conducting survey to find out the number of houses constructed on the encroached land, area of encroachment, from where the people have come from and other details.

They will prepare a comprehensive report on the encroachment of the reserve forest and later start the official process for eviction , an official said.

So far, 35 houses, which have been constructed on the encroached land, have already been identified. “The survey work is under way. This is the preliminary work for the eviction of encroachments,” said Town range officer Gouri Sankar Dash.

Budharaja reserve forest, which once spread over 133 acres, has reduced to about 75 acres due to rampant encroachment. The encroachment of the Budharaja Reserve Forest, which is a major tourist attraction in the city with the hilltop of the forest housing a temple of Lord Shiva and a motorable road to the top from where one can get a bird’s-eye view of the city, began in the late seventies. Initially a few people built thatched houses on the land of the reserve forest. However, gradually, the slum expanded. And later the residents converted thatched houses into houses with asbestos and cemented roof. Earlier, the forest department undertook a survey to identify the encroachers in April, 2014. However, the department failed to initiate any further step to evict the encroachers from the reserve forest. The survey revealed that there were 252 houses constructed inside the reserve forest. Names of about 700 persons among the encroachers had been enrolled on the electoral rolls and majority of the 252 households have availed power and water supply.

Even, the department had planned to move power distributor Wesco and public health and engineering organisation, seeking explanation on their authority in providing power and water connections to people inside the reserve forest which is illegal.

But, strangely the forest department remained silent after the entire exercise for reasons best known to them, said an official.

READ ON APP