(IN): Encroachment hindering setting up of wildlife sanctuary

[Guest guest]

*Encroachment hindering setting up of wildlife sanctuary*

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*Dimapur, April 27: *Even after 22 years of its declaration to set up a

wildlife sanctuary in a reserve forest near Dimapur, the Nagaland Government

has failed to complete the project because of illegal encroachment.

 

The state Government had decided to set up a wildlife sanctuary in 1986 and

renamed the Rangapahar Reserve Forest on the outskirts of Dimapur town as

the Rangapahar Zoological Park.

 

An important aspect of this reserve was that it served as a prime animal

corridor to the nearby Ntangki National Park and Doyapur Reserve Forest and

even to Assam's Karbi Anglong district.

 

But Ntangki also bore the brunt of human interference, while Doyapur forest

was reduced virtually to barren land.

 

Illegal Encroachment which had been continuing from the '70s increased in

the '90s with forest land being occupied for setting up villages and for

farming.

 

" If you want to own a piece of land at Dimapur, go and meet muscle men in

these villages and procure a lot at Rangapahar park, " an NGO activist

regretted.

 

When law enforcing agencies visited the park last week in an attempt to

evict illegal encroachers, they claimed ownership of land with documents and

expressed determination to resist eviction.

 

" Some of them do not possess even an inch of land in the park, but they have

papers saying they are the owners, a forest official said.

 

Sensing a possible backlash, the personnel from Dimapur district

administration and police left the park without carrying out the eviction.

 

When the Government decided to declare it as a wildlife sanctuary in 1986,

only 1,161 acre of green cover was left. The encroachment increased in the

'90s.

 

The Government erected fencing to protect it when hardly 430 acre was left,

but this did not deter land grabbers and it was further reduced to 176

hectare.

 

Encroachers claimed the Government's conservation initiative as a " hidden

agenda " of the Forest Department.

 

They said that they were not trying to grab Government land, but it was the

Government which was trying to force them out from the land they cultivated

for more than 30 years.

 

They questioned the Government's intention to set up the wildlife sanctuary

on land where there was no jungle and no wild animal.

 

Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio last week appealed for preservation and

protection of the park.

 

Following the Chief Minister's appeal, the apex Naga body Naga Hoho came out

with a strong statement against the encroachers.

 

State Forest Minister MC Konyak visited the park along with officials on

Thursday and said the Rangapahar Zoological Park would be formally

inaugurated in the next 2 to 3 months. (PTI)

 

Link: http://www.nagalandpage.co.in/2.html

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