The Harike wetland, which came into existence in
1952 after the construction of a barrage on the confluence of the
Sutlej and Beas rivers and was subsequently declared a bird sanctuary
in 1982, has come under severe threat from the encroachers.
About 898 acres of land of sanctuary is under
the illegal occupation of encroachers, who have been carrying out
agricultural operations over the same for the past many years. Some of
the encroachers have been using diesel-operated tube well motors to
draw underground water from the deep bore well, dug up by them over
the same pieces of land.
“About 30 per cent of original wet area of the
sanctuary has already disappeared due to siltation. The growth of
hyacinths has been eating up other vitals of the sanctuary. The
encroachment of land of sanctuary has added up the problems,” pointed
out one of the officials of state wildlife department.
Though they had been trying to stop the
encroachers to expand their illegal operations, sometimes they had to
face attack from these unscrupulous elements, who were being supported
by influential persons.
Information gathered by TNS revealed that
lengthy procedures of the of law to get the encroachments removed had
also been causing embarrassment to the department officials.
Information
revealed that about 21 civil suits had been instituted in different
courts of law located in Sultanpur Lodhi town of
Kapurthala
district, Patti in Tarn Taran district and Zira in Ferozepur district
to get 898 acres of land vacated. Some of these suits were nine to ten
years old.
Official sources said there were four persons,
who had encroached upon about 471 acres of land. Another two
individuals had managed to illegally occupy about 141 acres. About
seven individuals had been occupying land ranging from ten acre to 40
acre. Two other had been occupying 45 acre of land each.
A senior functionary of the wildlife department
said due to encroachment, the unscrupulous elements used to make
attempts to indulge in illegal fishing, which was a serious matter.
RK Luna, chief
conservator, wildlife,
Punjab, when contacted, said efforts were on to get the decision
in the civil suits at the earliest so that encroached land could be
used for sanctuary.
