Janakpurdham : More than 5,692 hectares of forestland has been encroached upon within the forest areas in the Madhesh Province, said an official report.

According to the report unveiled by the Madhes Province government, the rampant forest encroachment has been attributed to weaknesses and negligence on the part of forest employees and related security agencies. There are complaints that forest employees chose only those areas capable of providing them with more facilities and benefits, leading to the rise in encroachment.

As the Province’s Ministry of Forests said, the province has approximately 202,200 hectares of forest land, but 5,592 hectares of this land have been encroached upon in the absence of proper conservation efforts.

The report states that Saptari reports the encroachment of 7.25 hectares of forest land, while Siraha reports the encroachment of 993.14 hectares, Dhanusha 872 hectares, Mahottari 329.80 hectares, Sarlahi 164.78 hectares, Rautahat 3,190.54 hectares, Bara 0.34 hectares and Parsa 134.32 hectares.

Forestland makes up 22.8 percent of the total area in the Madhes Province and 504 community forest areas spanning 71,369 hectares are managed as community forests.

Likewise, 40,912.33 hectares of forest are managed as shared forests. The number of local levels lacking the total forest coverage is 105 and of them, some 80 percent lies within the Madhes Province.

Eighty-nine local levels, out of 136, in the Province have no forestland.

Various related studies show the encroachments on various national, community, shared and protected forestlands in hills, Terai, and districts in the inner Madhes.

Chief of Directorate of Forests, Madhes Province, Jagannath Prasad Jaiswal, said efforts to stop forest encroachments are underway in a planned way, underling the need of political cooperation and commitments to meet the target.

Experts said despite the promotion of forestation in the name of conservation efforts, measures to contain illegal deforestation, smuggling of woods, forest fire, and poaching have not been implemented effectively.

Madhes Province Chief Minister Satish Kumar Singh said the chiefs of district forest offices have been instructed to combat encroachment on forestlands.