In a significant operation, forest department officials in Solapur district conducted a campaign to remove encroachment on approximately 18 acres of forest land in Aljapur village, Karmala taluka. The action aimed to eradicate illegal occupation by citizens. Authorities registered a case against 15 men and four women under Section 26 of the Indian Forest Act, 1927.
Despite strong opposition from the accused encroachers, all 19 individuals were arrested. The operation involved heavy police deployment, with 70 forest department personnel and around 20 personnel from the Karmala police station. The area was cordoned off following the action.
Details of the Encroachment Removal
Assistant Conservator of Forests (Encroachment Eradication Department) Ajit Shinde stated, “Over the past two and a half months, hundreds of trees have been cut on 18 acres of forest department land in Aljapur. Twenty huts were built by encroaching on it. The Khadki Gram Panchayat, the Aljapur Gram Panchayat, and villagers from both places had opposed the people residing on encroached forest land. The forest department issued timely notices to these residents. As they did not cooperate, we had to take action abiding by the law. We will plant new indigenous trees here after conducting a panchnama.”
Yogesh Ghodke, Range Forest Officer from Karmala, added, “Nomadic community members are protected by the Atrocities Act. Therefore, it took time to act because they were given proper notice. Earlier, when we tried to prevent encroachment, the encroachers tied up our employee and kept him in custody. We will investigate the felled trees, their disposal, traders, buyers, and vehicles.”
List of Accused
The accused arrested for encroachment on forest land are: Anuja Shivaji Kale (45), Reshma Ganesh Pawar (39), Lakshmi Ashok Pawar (25), Savita Sham Kale (35), Sham Dada Kale (39), Shivaji Popat Kale (55), Parmeshwar Dashrath Kale (40), Rajinikanth Shivaji Kale (24), Sachin Suresh Pawar (25), Sunil Ashok Kale (40), Parrot Bharat Kale (30), Sharad Chandu Pawar (35), Deepak Ashok Kale (30), Gulab Bharat Kale (28), Ravi Shivaji Kale (25), Gorakh Bharat Kale (25), Pritam Janakiram Kale (22), Santosh Janakiram Kale (21), and Ganesh Sham Kale (22). All are residents of Jamkhed Taluka in Ahilyanagar district and have been remanded to 15 days of judicial custody.
Eight Poachers Held from Amboli Forest Range
In a separate operation, the Amboli forest range office under Kolhapur circle arrested eight poachers and seized wildlife and hunting equipment at Choukul and Shirgaonkar Point in the Amboli Forest Range.
Assistant Conservator of Forests Vaibhav Borate said, “While our patrolling team of the Amboli forest department was on a routine patrol on Thursday, a man was found carrying a dead porcupine. Our team arrested the accused and also seized a gun, a dead porcupine, a head torch, and other hunting equipment.”
The man was identified as Vithu Waghu Kokre, a resident of Choukul village in Sindhudurg district. While returning to Amboli, the patrolling team inspected several youths at Shirgaonkar Point. They found a cartridge gun, seven live cartridges, ten used cartridges, two torches, a sword, a dead mouse deer, and an Indian civet. The team arrested seven people, including six from Kolhapur and one local. However, two accomplices managed to flee.
The arrested individuals are Pawan Prakash Desai from Kadgaon village, Javed Salim Jamadar from Yadvnagar village, Hasim Hussain Kaji from Tirwade Kadgaon village, Bharat Navlu Patil from Choukul village in Sindhudurg district, Vanu Phonde from Yerandpe village, Ganesh Patkar from Pimpri Chinchwad area, and Akash Mohan Kurane from Yadavnagar village. The court has remanded all suspects in forest custody until June 20.
The operation was carried out under the guidance of Deputy Conservator of Forests Milish Sharma and Assistant Conservator of Forests Vaibhav Borate, and executed by Range Forest Officer Vaibhav Bhise, and forest personnel Namdev Chougule, Mehbub Nayakwade, Samrat Patil, Gorish Rane, Ravindra Patil, Sangram Patil, Tanaji Chavan, Vasudev Khot, Aniket Aware, and Aniket Deshmukh.
