More than 7000 pillars demarcating boundaries of Mussoorie forest cover have gone missing, reflecting widespread encroachment of forest land in the Queen of Hills, a Chief Conservator of Forests (CCF) (Working Plan) has claimed in his letter to the Uttarakhand Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (PCCF) recently.
In a letter written by IFS officer CCF (Work Plan) Sanjeev Chaturvedi to the Uttarakhand PCCF, it was alleged that the “disappearance of a large number of boundary pillars from the Mussorie Forest Division was a well-planned conspiracy to encroach on forest land in Dehradun. A scam of this magnitude would not occur without collusion of department officials and employees with land grabbers.”
Referring to a departmental report in March 2023, Chaturvedi claimed in the letter to the PCCF that 12,321 boundary pillars were recorded in Mussoorie Forest Division, but 7,375 of them have now disappeared from their places. The letter alleged a big discrepancy in the department’s record, for the pillars are still seen in Mussorie’s forest map but not on the ground.
The CCF’s letter also highlighted that “the situation was alarming in the Mussoorie Range, where 4,133 boundary pillars were missing, indicating that maximum encroachment took place near the Mussoorie hill town. The second major forest land grab was recorded in the Raipur range adjoining Dehradun, where 1,722 pillars were missing.”
“Jaunpur Range, another hill site in demand, underwent a loss of 944 pillars. Another forest Range, Dewalsari, witnessed a loss of 296 pillars. The State Forest Department’s own record shows that the problem of encroachment in the Mussoorie Forest Division worsened mainly from 2017-18 to 2023-24. As many as 142 encroachment cases involving more than 50 hectares of grabbed forest land were registered during this period,” claimed the letter.
The CCF (Work Plan) in his letter called the matter extremely serious, recommending a probe by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) or a CBI investigation under the court’s supervision. Further, Chaturvedi asked the PCCF for the immediate reclaiming of the missing boundary pillars, identification of illegal occupations on the forest land, and fixing of accountability of the officers concerned.
When contacted about Chaturvedi’s letter, an IFS official at the state forest headquarters in Dehradun, under condition of anonymity, said that Mussoorie forest cover boundary pillars continued to disappear with the alleged complicity of department officials. ”An IFS (Indian Forest Service) officer was allegedly accused of being involved in the land-grabbing scam of the Mussoorie forest area. It’s alleged that during his tenure as DFO Mussoorie, the number of boundary pillars in various ranges went down sharply while his assets took an upsurge trajectory,” he said.
The officer in question allegedly owns an apple orchard in the Mandi district of Himachal Pradesh. He has a residential plot in Gautam Buddha Nagar, Uttar Pradesh, and four residential plots in Dhorankhas, Nooriwala, Kuanwala, and Kalimati, the IFS official claimed.