The Pilibhit Tiger Reserve (PTR) authorities have submitted detailed records to the Uttar Pradesh government regarding 1,182 hectares of forest land currently occupied by families displaced from Pakistan during the Partition. This development comes amid the state government's ongoing initiative to grant land ownership rights to over 12,000 migrant families settled across Pilibhit, Kheri, Rampur, and Bijnor districts.
Land Distribution Details
According to PTR Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) Manish Singh, 1,009.49 hectares of the allotted land fall within the reserve's core forest area, while 172.58 hectares lie in the buffer zone. The land was allocated decades ago by the then District Relief and Rehabilitation Officer (DRRO) across seven villages.
PTR records show that 515.97 hectares of core forest land are in Chandia Hajara village, 275.60 hectares in Naujalha Nakta, 144.10 hectares in Dhakiya Talluke Maharajpur, 73.59 hectares in Maharajpur, and 0.23 hectare in Rampuria Mahof. In the buffer zone, 98.78 hectares are in Ramnagra village and 73.80 hectares in Chanduia.
Government Scheme and Exemptions
While the state cabinet approved a proposal on April 7 to grant ownership rights to these families, it explicitly excluded public-utility categories like threshing grounds, grazing lands, and ponds. However, forest land was notably not exempted from the scheme.
DFO Singh explained that the forest department originally transferred the land to the DRRO between 1965 and the early 1980s without officially denotifying its forest status. The transfer was conditional, stipulating that the land would eventually revert to the forest department once the rehabilitation objectives were fulfilled. However, because the district administration never relocated the families to revenue land, they continue to occupy the forest areas.
Judicial Scrutiny and Conservation Concerns
This dispute unfolds under strict judicial scrutiny. A three-judge bench of the Supreme Court, comprising Justices B R Gavai, Augustine George Masih, and K Vinod Chandran, earlier observed during a petition in May last year: “It is necessary that a direction needs to be issued to all state governments and union territories to hand over the possession of land recorded as ‘forest land’ and currently in possession of the revenue department to the forest department.”
Wildlife conservationists have opposed including forest land under the ownership rights scheme, citing frequent tiger movement outside PTR due to shrinking habitat space. Shivam Kashyap, a local wildlife activist and lawyer, urged Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath to return over 1,100 hectares of forest land to PTR, saying he would move the Allahabad High Court and the Supreme Court-appointed Central Empowered Committee if no action was taken.
