GUWAHATI: Close to 11.28 percent or 259700 hectares of forest area in Assam has been encroached, revealed the Ministry of Environment.
In terms of forest area encroachment, Assam is ahead of Odisha and behind Madhya Pradesh.
The ministry revealed this while answering a query under the Right to Information Act. The query was asked by Ghaziabad-based activist Akash Vashisht, in July, 2019.
However, the reply was sent to him in August and it was made public on Friday, September 27.
Assistant inspector general of forests, AK Prabhakar, told Hindustan Times, “We have only compiled the encroachment data shared by states with us. These are not the latest figures.”
He added, “State governments have the details about the types of encroachments in their respective states.”
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