Forest minister Rana blames LG’s administration for demolition of tribal shelters in Jammu

A demolition drive carried out in Jammu’s forest area to remove alleged encroachments by nomadic Gujjar and Bakerwal families on Tuesday snowballed into a political controversy, with the Forest and Tribal Affairs Minister, Javed Ahmad Rana, blaming the Lt Governor’s administration for this “unilateral” demolition drive. The minister visited the site and strongly protested the action against the shelters.

The development comes days after BJP MLA Vikram Randhawa staged a protest demanding the removal of the encroachments.

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Police and the Forest Department personnel, accompanied by JCBs on Tuesday morning, carried out the anti-encroachment drive on the outskirts of Jammu city and pulled down around 25 structures to retrieve nearly 60 kanals of prime forest land, officials said.

Officials of the forest department, Forest Protection Force, revenue department and the police launched the operation to bulldoze the encroachers from the forest area.

Ruling National Conference MP Mian Altaf Ahmad condemned the demolition of these structures.

Javed Rana rushed to the spot and ordered an inquiry into these demolitions. He wrote on X, “Deeply shocked & outraged by the clandestine, unilateral demolition of homes in Sidhra, Jammu by the LG Administration. Decades of heritage of our innocent Gujjar-Bakarwal families have been reduced to rubble without taking the elected, popular Government or my Ministry into confidence. This is not a mere regulatory drive; it is a targeted, cruel eviction explicitly aimed at terrorising and marginalising our nomadic tribal communities who have protected these lands for over half a century”.

“We will not stand by as silent spectators to this selective harassment and high-handedness. I am immediately taking this up at the highest level with Chief Minister @OmarAbdullah sb to demand an immediate halt, an institutional inquiry against the responsible officers & officials, and full rehabilitation for the affected families. Our people deserve justice, not displacement!,” the minister added on X.

Mian Altaf Ahmad NC MP also condemned the incident and wrote on X, “I strongly condemn the demolition of several residential structures belonging to poor tribal people in Sidhra Jammu today, who have been putting up there for decades. This high-handedness by the administration and the Forest Department is unacceptable.”

Reports said that despite resistance from the alleged encroachers, the drive continued for nearly three to four hours, during which around 20-30 structures, mostly kaccha constructions, were demolished in the Mahamaya forest belt.

The affected families staged protests against the action and termed the demolition drive “unjustified”. They alleged that the drive was carried out without any prior notice.

Officials said there were hardly any structures in this Mahamaya forest belt five to six years ago, but now scores of illegal structures have come up, while new constructions continue. They said that the Forest Department will undertake mapping of tribal settlements and other habitations in forest areas across Jammu to check further encroachments.