"There is a big nexus between land grabbers, some police officers, revenue officials and senior politicians of the state who have encroached upon a large part of forest land," the State Minister for Forests and Environment Bali Bhagat said, adding that records of such land have been destroyed.
Stressing that the government will identify and retrieve land from the encroachers, he said, "We came to know that these politicians have got the record of such land destroyed in a systematic way. But we will dig out the records from archives and retrieve the land from illegal occupation."
He said that the people who had encroached upon forest land and now facing eviction were spreading rumours that such move was aimed at a particular community.
"The people who are spreading such rumours are those who have encroached upon the state land. I must assure you that whosoever has encroached upon the state land irrespective of religion or political affiliation will face the music," Bhagat said.
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"An inter-departmental committee has been constituted for conducting demarcation of the land which has been encroached upon," he said.
The forest department has also recovered and seized huge quantity of illegally extracted timber besides seizing 21 vehicles, 41 horses and two boats used for smuggling those, he added.
The minister also said that the department has taken various steps to promote forest industry in the state under which timber products would be sold in other states.
Bhagat who also hold the charge of social welfare department said that Jammu and Kashmir has become the first state in the country to implement of "Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao" scheme launched by Prime minister Narendra Modi.