Patna: The high court on Saturday directed the Nalanda and Kaimur district magistrates (DMs) to personally appear in court on September 4 in the case related to encroachment of forest land in both the districts.

The court was dissatisfied with the affidavits filed by them earlier.

A division bench of Chief Justice Mukesh R. Shah and Justice Dr Ravi Ranjan, while hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by social activist Vikash Chandra, alias Guddu Baba, passed the summons. Guddu Baba, in his petition, had alleged that local residents and land mafia had encroached around 352 acres of forests in Kaimur and 1.36 hectares in Nalanda's Biharsharif.

The court was told that encroachments at most of these places started for agricultural purposes, which eventually led to human hutments and cutting down of trees for fuel and fodder.

The petitioner told the court that various laws, including the Indian Forest Act, 1927, and Wildlife Protection Act, 1972, Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980, had been enacted, which give right to the state governments to evict encroachers. Despite these laws, the land mafia have been successful in grabbing the forest land.

In its earlier hearing on July 3, the court had directed the state government to file a reply stating the exact areas of forest land encroached in Bihar.

The forest department officials had admitted before the court that large-scale encroachment exists at both the places. However, the official informed the bench that despite their earlier attempts to get the land freed, their move was restricted owing to strong opposition by the encroachers who are influential and powerful people.

On this, the bench had directed both the Nalanda and Kaimur DMs to file an affidavit in the court, stating the steps taken so far to get the land freed and also what they intend to do in future to remove the encroachments.