The same information was sought by the MoEF&CC in May 2024 but for more than a year the Telangana forest department did not comply
HYDERABAD: Amidst ever rising encroachments of the forests, the forest department is finding itself under intense scrutiny from the Centre which has asked for a detailed report.
On Friday, the forest department’s headquarters at Aryana Bhavan sent off urgent messages to its district officials to compile the data and send it to the headquarters by August 13 as the information has to be submitted to the Union ministry of environment, forests and climate change (MoEF&CC) by August 18.
The same information was sought by the MoEF&CC in May 2024 but for more than a year the Telangana forest department did not comply.
At last unofficial count, some 7 lakh acres of forest land in Telangana is reported to be under illegal encroachments.
In its Friday’s letter, the department said that during a recent meeting with officials of MoEF&CC’s forest protection division, the issue of Telangana not submitting the information on encroachments required to be submitted by the Centre in a case before the National Green Tribunal (NGT) came up and directions were issued that the information must be sent forthwith.
Among the details of the information sought from every district is total encroachment up to July 31, 2025, action taken over the last five years to remove the encroachments, and percentage of forest loss as on July 31 this year. The letter to all the district forest officers from the Telangana chief wildlife warden Elusing Meru who sent it on behalf of the principal chief conservator of forests (head of forest force) Dr C. Suvarna, said that those officials who fail to send the required information “will be held responsible” and that the “matter will be viewed seriously.”
