Court evicts villagers, says forests must be protected

The sessions court in Thane has refused to grant protection to a group of villagers who had encroached on Forest Department land, and asked the department to take steps to remove them.

While passing the orders, court maintained that merely because the villagers had been in possession of the land for more than 30 years did not mean that they possessed it legally.

Calling the villagers' intentions mala fide, the court held, "This conduct shows the intentions to grab the government's land. This needs to be deprecated." Eleven villagers from Daighar village in Kalyan had approached the court against the department in 2010, seeking for relief of injunction.