Acres of forest lands reclaimed, thanks to tech

Paradise Regained

- EJAZ KAISER @ Raipur

"THE forester's foot is best manure for the forest," so the saying goes. True to the word, foresters in Chhattisgarh have demonstrated how high-tech surveillance and decisive action can bring a paradigm shift in forest conservation, reclaiming nearly 1,800 acres of forest from the clutches of encroachment in the Udanti-Sitanadi Tiger Reserve (USTR).

Regaining the vast forest terrain — progressively occupied over the past 18 years — proved quite a task for the Chhattisgarh forest department as it painstakingly identified and cleared designated forestlands, worth over ₹500 crore, of illegal occupation, said Varun Jain (IFS) Deputy Director, USTR.