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| Vacated with hype, Tosamaidan falls prey to encroachers, timber smugglers | | | Early Times Report
Srinagar AUG 6
Tosamaidan a large lush green meadow in central Kashmir’s Budgam district was in news for last many years for being used as a firing range by Army. The decision of Army to vacate the meadow in public interest was hailed by people from all walks of life , especially the locals. The said meadow is now again under threat , but not from the Army’s artillery shells , but the illegal encroachments and timber smuggling are destroying this meadow from last more than 25 days since the unrest started in Kashmir valley.
Details available with Early Times reveal that timber smugglers are having a field day in Tosamaidan as scores of horses are seen laden with illegal timber which is smuggled from the leftover forests of Tosamaidan. Pertinently the forests around Tosamaidan were almost completely wiped out during peak of militancy in 1990’s , but after 2010 the situation was brought under control by some forest officers . Locals say that from last 25 days more than 100 Budloo and Kairoo trees have been axed down in Tosamaidan forests by timber smugglers and other local youth who are nowadays jobless. In addition to timber smuggling last amount of Forest land has been grabbed by locals and illegal construction is going on in several villages located around Tosamaidan. Sources say that in Tosamaidan itself many “Dokes” have been constructed by locals especially the Shepherds.
Few years back Government headed by Omar Abdullah disclosed in the Legislative Council that neither compensation nor jobs have been provided to the families of deceased and injured persons due to artillery exercises. But under section 5 of the Manoeuvres Field Firing & Artillery Practice Act 1938 (MAFFAP Act) the monetary compensation has to be paid from the Defence Estimates for any damage caused to person or property.
“Till date nobody has been paid any compensation by Govt and people are very much in anger and are now openly damaging forests” said a local resident of Shunglipora Nazir Ahmad . Nazir further said that Govt plans to convert Dokes into tourist huts and people under this impression want to grab the opportunity and more and more people are constructing Dokes in Tosamaidan. But do they know constructing many Dokes will leave no open space and Tosamaidan will be turned into a concrete jungle like Gulmarg or Pahalgam
As already reported by Early Times few days back timber smugglers who had changed their jobs after Forest and Police department used stringent methods of curbing timber smuggling have now again been activated. Sources say that green trees inside jungles of Budgam , Kupwara m Baramulla , Bandipora m Shopian , Kulgam etc are being felled at an alarming rate and if this illegal practice is not stopped , many compartments in these districts will have not a single pinus tree left after few weeks. Reports say that most of the people involved in timber cutting are jobless labourers who returned to their native villages from Srinagar because of unrest.
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