Kavre, August 2

District Forest Office, Kavre, managed to get 80 hectares of encroached forest land cleared in the last fiscal.

According to Chief Forest Officer of Kavre, Prem Prasad Khanal, forest encroachment in five community forests has been removed. “We’ve removed the encroachment from Hilejaljale, Devithumka Dhungepakha, Belakhola, Bagadevi and Saurdanda Pakdol community forests and afforested the areas,” he said.

According to data collected to devise a five-year forest management action plan, the district had some 257.78 hectare forest land encroached in the fiscal 2014/15. As per the study, as many as 629 households had occupied the forest land while some 338 houses and sheds were constructed in the encroached land.

As per statistics, Naldum, Rabiopi, Devitar, Methinkot and the then Hokse VDCs were the worst affected due to forest encroachment.

Meanwhile, the office has handed four new community forests to consumers this fiscal. Hariyali Laligurans, Chiningtar, Simpani and Chinimarang Aahaldanda community forests have been handed over to consumers.

As many as 563 community forests have been handed over to consumers in the district so far. As many as 63,078 households have benefited from the community forests with 18,169.89 hectares area.