Lok Sabha Question No. 2014 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2022-03-14
Subject: Illegal Encroachement of Forest Land
Ministry: ENVIRONMENT,  FORESTS AND CLIMATE CHANGE
Asked by: Bhavana Gawali (Patil), Vinayak Bhaurao Raut

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF ENVIRONMENT, FOREST AND CLIMATE CHANGE

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO.2014

TO BE ANSWERED ON 14.03.2022

## Illegal Encroachement of Forest Land

## 2014. SHRIMATI BHAVANA  PUNDALIK RAO GAWALI: SHRI VINAYAK  RAUT:

Will the Minister of ENVIRONMENT, FOREST AND CLIMATE CHANGE be pleased to state:

- (a) the  total  area  of  land  reserved  for  forest  in  each  State/Union  Territory  of  the  country including Maharashtra;
- (b) whether the Government has made any assessment regarding illegal encroachment being committed over the said land for years and if so, the details thereof;
- (c) the  steps  taken  by  the  Government  for  removing  illegal  encroachment  and  whether  the States have also been instructed to take action in this regard;
- (d) whether  there  has  been  any  increase  in  the  cases  of  encroachment  reported  in  wild  life sanctuaries and protected areas across the country;
- (e) whether the Government is concerned about encroachment of wild reserves and protected areas; and
- (f) if so, the year/place-wise details of the cases related to encroachment and the action taken thereon?

## ANSWER

MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF ENVIRONMENT, FOREST AND CLIMATE CHANGE (SHRI ASHWINI KUMAR CHOUBEY)

- (a) As per the India State of Forest Report (ISFR), 2021, the total Recorded Forest Area in the Country is 7,75,288 square kilometre. The State and Union Territories wise details including the State of Maharashtra are given at Annexure-I.
- (b) As per the information available in the Ministry, the State/UT wise details of the forest area under encroachment in the country are given in Annexure-II.
- (c)to(f) Protection and management of forests is primarily the responsibility of concerned State/UT.  The  various  actions  to  remove  encroachment  are  taken  as  per  the provisions under various acts such as Indian Forest Act, 1927; Wildlife Protection Act, 1972; Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980, various rules made under these Acts and State specific Acts and Rules.

The  Ministry  has  written  to  State  Governments/UT  Administrations  to  remove encroachment  as  per  the  existing  Acts/Rules  and  to  ensure  that  no  further encroachment  takes  place.  In  order  to  prevent  and  control  encroachments,  the

States and UTs also take various measures such as demarcation and digitization of forest  boundaries,  strengthening  infrastructure  for  forest  protection,  involving fringe area forest communities through Joint Forest Management Committees, Eco Development Committees etc.

The  Ministry  of  Environment,  Forest  and  Climate  Change  provides  financial assistance  to  the  States/UTs  for  protection  and  development  of  Protected  Areas including measures aimed at prevention of encroachment.

The  Ministry  has  not  received  any  reports  from  the  States/UT's  indicating  that there has been an increase in cases related to encroachment in wildlife sanctuaries and Protected Areas across the country.

## Annexure I

## Annexure referred to in reply to part (a) of the Lok Sabha Unstarred Question No.  2014 due for answer on 14.03.2022 regarding 'Illegal Encroachement of Forest Land'

## Recorded Forest Areas (RFA) in States/UTs as per ISFR-2021

(Area in square kilometre)

| Sl. No.        | State/ UT                                  | Geographical Area (GA)   | RFA (in different categories)   | RFA (in different categories)   | RFA (in different categories)   | Total RFA (2021)   |
|----------------|--------------------------------------------|--------------------------|---------------------------------|---------------------------------|---------------------------------|--------------------|
| Sl. No.        | State/ UT                                  | Geographical Area (GA)   | Reserved Forest                 | Protected Forest                | Unclassed Forests*              | Total RFA (2021)   |
| 1.             | Andhra Pradesh                             | 1,62,968                 | 31,959                          | 5,069                           | 230                             | 37,258             |
| 2.             | Arunachal Pradesh                          | 83,743                   | 12,371                          | 11,857                          | 27,312                          | 51,540             |
| 3.             | Assam                                      | 78,438                   | 17,864                          | 0                               | 8,972                           | 26,836             |
| 4.             | Bihar                                      | 94,163                   | 693                             | 6,183                           | 566                             | 7,442              |
| 5.             | Chhattisgarh                               | 1,35,192                 | 25,897                          | 24,036                          | 9,883                           | 59,816             |
| 6.             | Delhi                                      | 1,483                    | 78                              | 25                              | 0                               | 103                |
| 7.             | Goa                                        | 3,702                    | 119                             | 755                             | 397                             | 1,271              |
| 8.             | Gujarat                                    | 196,244                  | 14,574                          | 2,898                           | 4,398                           | 21,870             |
| 9.             | Haryana                                    | 44,212                   | 249                             | 1,158                           | 152                             | 1,559              |
| 10.            | Himachal Pradesh                           | 55,673                   | 1,883                           | 28,887                          | 7,178                           | 37,948             |
| 11.            | Jharkhand                                  | 79,716                   | 4,500                           | 18,922                          | 1,696                           | 25,118             |
| 12.            | Karnataka                                  | 191,791                  | 28,690                          | 3,931                           | 5,663                           | 38,284             |
| 13.            | Kerala                                     | 38,852                   | 11,522                          | 0                               | 0                               | 11,522             |
| 14.            | Madhya Pradesh                             | 3,08,252                 | 61,886                          | 31,098                          | 1,705                           | 94,689             |
| 15.            | Maharashtra                                | 3,07,713                 | 50,865                          | 6,433                           | 4,654                           | 61,952             |
| 16.            | Manipur                                    | 22,327                   | 984                             | 3,254                           | 13,180                          | 17,418             |
| 17.            | Meghalaya                                  | 22,429                   | 1,113                           | 12                              | 8,371                           | 9,496              |
| 18.            | Mizoram                                    | 21,081                   | 4,499                           | 1,823                           | 1,157                           | 7,479              |
| 19.            | Nagaland                                   | 16,579                   | 234                             | 0                               | 8,389                           | 8,623              |
| 20.            | Odisha                                     | 1,55,707                 | 36,049                          | 25,133                          | 22                              | 61,204             |
| 21.            | Punjab                                     | 50,362                   | 44                              | 1,137                           | 1,903                           | 3,084              |
| 22.            | Rajasthan                                  | 3,42,239                 | 12,176                          | 18,543                          | 2,144                           | 32,863             |
| 23.            | Sikkim                                     | 7,096                    | 5,452                           | 389                             | 0                               | 5,841              |
| 24.            | Tamil Nadu                                 | 1,30,060                 | 20,523                          | 1,053                           | 1,612                           | 23,188             |
| 25.            | Telangana                                  | 1,12,077                 | 25,800                          | 1,592                           | 296                             | 27,688             |
| 26.            | Tripura                                    | 10,486                   | 3,588                           | 2                               | 2,704                           | 6,294              |
| 27.            | Uttar Pradesh**                            | 2,40,928                 | 11,560                          | 296                             | 5,528                           | 17,384             |
| 28.            | Uttarakhand                                | 53,483                   | 26,547                          | 9,885                           | 1,568                           | 38,000             |
| 29.            | West Bengal                                | 88,752                   | 7,054                           | 3,772                           | 1,053                           | 11,879             |
| 30.            | A&NIslands                                 | 8,249                    | 5,613                           | 1,558                           | 0                               | 7,171              |
| 31.            | Chandigarh                                 | 114                      | 32                              | 0                               | 3                               | 35                 |
| 32.            | Dadra &Nagar Haveli and Daman &Diu         | 602                      | 203                             | 5                               | 6                               | 214                |
| 33.            | Jammu& Kashmir Shape file Area*** (54,624) |                          | 17,648                          | 2,551                           | 0                               | 20,199             |
| 34.            | Ladakh Shape file Area***                  | 2,22,236                 | 7                               | 0                               | 0                               | 7                  |
| 35.            | Lakshadweep                                | Lakshadweep              | 30                              | 0                               | 0                               | 0                  |
|                |                                            |                          |                                 | 0                               |                                 |                    |
| 36. Puducherry | 36. Puducherry                             | 36. Puducherry           | 490                             | 0 2                             | 11                              | 13                 |

Source: State/UTs Forest Departments

*Unclassed Forest includes all forest other than Reserve Forest and Protected Forest as reported by State/UTs Forest Departments.

**In case of Uttar Pradesh, the RFA excludes 9,662.764 km of linear plantations along Road, Railway line and Canal.

***Area of shape file provided by Survey of India (August, 2021). Notified geographical areas for individual UTs from SOI are awaited.

## ANNEXURE-II

## ANNEXURE REFFERED TO PART (b) OF THE LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 2014 DUE FOR REPLY ON 14.03.2022 REGARDING Illegal Encroachement of Forest Land

|   S.No. | Name of the State/UTs   | Area under Encroachment (in ha)   |
|---------|-------------------------|-----------------------------------|
|       1 | Andhra Pradesh          | 34358.33                          |
|       2 | Assam                   | 377532.63                         |
|       3 | Arunachal Pradesh       | 53450.43                          |
|       4 | Bihar                   | 74.01                             |
|       5 | Chhattisgarh            | 7645.84                           |
|       6 | Gujarat                 | 25.24                             |
|       7 | Goa                     | Nil                               |
|       8 | Haryana                 | 1316.44                           |
|       9 | Himachal Pradesh        | 6252.00                           |
|      10 | Jharkhand               | 29048.50                          |
|      11 | Jammu &Kashmir          | 16512.39                          |
|      12 | Karnataka               | 407.09                            |
|      13 | Kerala                  | 5024.54                           |
|      14 | Madhya Pradesh          | 54173.28                          |
|      15 | Maharashtra             | 228.81                            |
|      16 | Manipur                 | 2213.82                           |
|      17 | Meghalaya               | 9747.19                           |
|      18 | Mizoram                 | 10852.80                          |
|      19 | Nagaland                | 25.89                             |
|      20 | Odisha                  | 33154.19                          |
|      21 | Punjab                  | 9008.08                           |
|      22 | Rajasthan               | 13939.99                          |
|      23 | Sikkim                  | 2817.21                           |
|      24 | Tripura                 | 3621.80                           |
|      25 | Tamil Nadu              | 15010.71                          |
|      26 | Telangana               | 2004.48                           |
|      27 | Uttar Pradesh           | 27325.17                          |
|      28 | Uttarakhand             | 10649.11                          |
|      29 | West Bengal             | 10214.80                          |
|      30 | A &NIslands             | 3851.24                           |
|      31 | Chandigarh              | 14.00                             |
|      32 | D&N Haveli              | 0.08                              |
|      33 | Daman &Diu              | 87.83                             |
|      34 | Lakshadweep             | Nil                               |
|      35 | Delhi                   | 384.38                            |
|      36 | Puducherry              | Nil                               |
|      37 | Ladakh                  | 01.00                             |