Sajad Hameed
After the Pahalgam and Rajouri anti-encroachment drives conducted by the local administration, the residents of several villages in the Budgam district have received eviction notices from the Forest Department of Jammu Kashmir causing anguish among the dozens of residents.
Speaking to The Kashmiriyat, a local resident said, “We have been living in these years for several generations, we have a proper living infrastructure here, Government-issued transformers, poles, drinking water supply, electric wires, water pipes, roads and everything else, why are we being asked to leave all of a sudden.”
He said that from the past few weeks, the Forest department has been sending notices in the Villages including Zilsidara Jabbad asking people to evacuate the lands immediately.
“Why does the state have a problem all of a sudden? Why are they planning to leave us homeless?” a resident said, adding, “We will not leave the homes, let them run the bulldozers over our dead bodies.”
Abdul Rashid, a senior resident speaking to The Kashmiriyat said that he has been hearing tales since his childhood about the forest areas, where his ancestors lived “I am almost 80 years old, I will not abandon my house, let them kill me.”
According to the locals they were allocated the land way back in late 1940’s by Govt under “Grow More Food Programme”. “Now after 72 years J&K Govt is asking them to surrender the same and Eviction Notices are being issued to them by the Forest Department,” Abdul Rashid told The Kashmiriyat.
Earlier the eviction notices were sent to the Gujjar and Bakerwal community in Pahalgam, Ganderbal and many other areas of Jammu Kashmir asking them to leave the “illegally occupied” forest land. 13 Houses were demolished during a demolition drive in the Pahalgam area of South Kashmir.
Various activists have been demanding the implementation of Forest Rights Act 2006, which gives land rights to the scheduled tribes to possess the forest land.
An administrative official speaking to The Kashmiriyat said that many people who have occupied the forest land illegally have been sent notices to evacuate from the forest land.