Dimapur, August 20 (MExN): A statement was received here today from people calling their-selves “petitioners” and “local residents” claiming a “civil suit” over Rangapahar Zoological Park and the district administration is acting ‘illegally.’ The park continues to be mired in problems of encroachment with the latest upheaval being a dead body being buried within the reserved land reportedly by encroachers.
The “petitioners” asserted in their statement that a civil suit is presently pending before the District & Session Judge Court of Dimapur and the district administration is well aware of “the facts of the case.” The statement was appended by Lutovi Achumi on behalf of “petitioners.” For these reasons, the promulgation of 144 Cr.PC. in and around Nagaland the zoological park by the district administration is “ultravires and illegal.”
It was asserted that the District & Session Judge Court of Dimapur had issued a “Status Quo Order” on February 26, 2010 “directing both the parties to maintain the Status Quo over the suit land.”
The “local residents” even claimed in the civil suit that their possession over the land by way of “peaceful traditional cultivation, grazing grounds, collection of firewood and their common burial ground should not be disturbed due to alteration of the original notified boundary of the Nagaland Zoological Park.” But the district administration in clear violation of the said “status quo order had clamped the said S.144 Cr.PC. restricting the movement,” they claimed.
The statement also alleged “contempt of court and misuse of official status and powers.” Further, the claimants alleged that in the guise of the promulgation, the Forest department is continually undertaking hectic developmental work within the land.
The claimants also accused the district administration of having “by-passed all sense of reasoning, in contravention of the universal law have exhumed the dead body of a local resident who was recently buried” in the park. “It is further stated that the common cemetery burial ground of the local residents is located at the present suit land” the claimants said, which they claimed have been in use by the “local residents since time immemorial.”
“It is indeed a great shock to learn that the district administration had gone ahead with exhuming the dead body even before the expiry of the deadline given by them and further the district administration had acted contrary to the provisions of law by exhuming the dead body without any order or orders to that effect and the same is unprocedural which attracts penal sections of law since the matter in issue is pending before the competent court and the District Magistrate/DC is an interested party to the suit by virtue of the fact that he is the defendant No.6 in the said suit.”
The claimants also referred to a “cabinet memorandum” submitted “by Anil Kumar, Secretary, Forest department” that out of the total original area of 8809 hectares (21769.40 acres), 2583 was deducted for government purpose (Sugar Mill-1981 Hectors, Central Jail-132 Hectors, Wildlife Sanctuary-470 Hectors.). They also asserted that 5216 was encroached by “various community and tribals” and the balance to be 1010 hectares was “re-encroached” by “surrounding villages” and was “recognized by the government of Nagaland.”
