By Shishir Prashant 
PrashantNews
This year, Chief Conservator of Forests (Action Plan), Uttarakhand, Sanjiv Chaturvedi claimed to have uncovered a scandal in Mussoorie forest division where he found 7375 boundary pillars missing in forest areas.
After the expose’, Chaturvedi was transferred from the post.
But now the Uttarakhand High Court has issued notices to the CBI, the Central Government, the Uttarakhand government, the Survey of India, and the Central Empowered Committee (CEC) regarding the investigation into 7,375 missing forest boundary pillars amid allegations that there was rapid and unusual increase in the assets of regional forest officers posted in the Mussoorie Forest Division over the past few years.
A division bench of the High Court comprising Justices Manoj Tiwari and Justice Subhash Upadhyay directed all respondents to file their affidavits within six weeks and fixed February 11 as the next date for hearing the case.
During the hearing, the court expressed strong displeasure over the disappearance of such a large number of boundary pillars.
The notices came on a petition filed by environmental activist Naresh Chaudhary who is seeking direction to the Survey of India to conduct a comprehensive and scientific assessment of all forest areas under the Mussoorie Forest Division to identify the exact locations of all missing boundary pillars and reinstall them in a timely manner.
The petitioner also requested the implementation of a restoration and rehabilitation plan for the affected areas of the Mussoorie Forest Division and the transfer of all forest land currently under the charge or control of revenue officials to the Forest Department within a stipulated timeframe.
Interestingly, parts of Mussoorie, Rishikesh and Dehradun have witnessed land grabbing, illegal construction and real-estate expansion over the last few decades. The Supreme Court on Monday came down heavily on the state government on alleged encroachment in Rishikesh saying the state authorities were silent spectators to forest land grabbing happening in front of their eyes.
The matter came to light in 2023 when the then Chief Conservator of Forests, Sanjiv Chaturvedi, ordered a survey of all forest boundary pillars in the Mussoorie Forest Division. At that time, the process of preparing a new action plan for the Forest Division was underway. A report later revealed that out of a total of 12,321 boundary pillars, 7,375 pillars were missing from the ground.
According to the report, it was also found that approximately 80 percent of these missing pillars occurred in just two ranges—the Mussoorie Range and the Raipur Range. From a real estate perspective, these two ranges are considered highly profitable, with immense potential for the development of hotels, resorts, and residential complexes.
Chaturvedi wrote letters to the head of the state forest force (HOFF) in June and August this year, requesting that the case be handed over to the CBI and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) for investigation. In these letters, he cited the accumulation of large amounts of immovable property in the names of the concerned regional forest officers and demanded an investigation into their properties.
In August this year, the regional office of the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest, and Climate Change also wrote to the Uttarakhand government, urging it to investigate the matter and take necessary action. The letter called for appropriate action to be taken in cases involving violations of the Forest Conservation Act, 1980.
Meanwhile, the government formed a new committee headed by Rajiv Dhiman, the Conservator of Forests for the Shivalik region, to re-examine the case.
The petition alleged that this committee was formed with the intention of “inflating the data” and could destroy or tamper with evidence available on the ground.
According to the petition, some of the officials on the committee were previously under suspicion in cases of financial irregularities related to Miyawaki plantations, while others were previously posted in the Mussoorie Forest Division.
Significantly, enraged citizens in Dehradun in May-June this year had staged strong protests against a slew of encroachments inside the Khalanga forests in Dehradun which is part of the Mussoorie forest division.