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Irfan Lone
Kupwara: To curb the menace of bhang cultivation in Kupwara,authorities in Lolab,under Kamraj Forest Division, booked 4 people under Public Safety Act( PSA) in Kupwara’s Lolab area.
An official source in the department said that the accused persons namely Mohd Anwar Khan, son of Mir Khan; Mafeez Khan, son of Roshan Khan; Musa Khan son of Hayat Khan and Mushtaq Ahmad Khan, son of Eisa Khan – all residents of Kakadpadi Dever Lolab.
The accused , the official said, were recommended under PSA Order Number 07/08/09/ and 10 of DMK/PSA(F)of 2023, dated 03/05/2023 and were subsequently shifted and lodged at Kot Bhalwal Jail Jammu.
“It should act as a deterrent message for every other member of the society that we are not going to tolerate any such act,” the official said further.
“These offenders have been damaging forest crops and carrying out bhang cultivation after resorting to slash and burn crops to open the area for bhang as Bhang crop is a light demander”, he further added.
Futher, earlier also various FIRs were registered against these offenders, but still, these people were carrying out bhang cultivation.
Now, these habitual forest damage doers who continued to carry out commercial cultivation of Bhang despite registration of FIRs and issuance of warnings, extreme steps have been taken and detention orders under PSA have been slapped on 4 persons till date.
The individuals have illegally felled trees in the forest areas of Trimiukhan top lolab and have been carrying illegal cultivation of bhang in these areas from last many years.
“These persons, besides cultivating Bhang, were provoking others to carry out the said illegal cultivation in the forest areas. Further the said persons were threatening forest officials who carry out any reforestation activity in the area and have even damaged the public property (plantings and fencings) created in the area and have carried out violent attacks on forest officials during their 2019-20 and 20-21”, forest official said.
These offenders were causing irreparable loss to the forests ,which is detrimental to the local ecosystem as well as society at large .Further, these offenders were booked under many FIRs,s but despite these preventative measures taken by the department under law ,they have not restrained from such illegal practices and were continuously inflicting forest damages in the area .
Now, in order to curb the nefarious activities of these forest offenders and to safeguard the national wealth, they were booked under jammu and Kashmir Public Safety Act 1978, an officer said. The dossiers were submitted by DFO Kamraj Forest Division to Deputy Commissioner Kupwara for invoking PSA.
