Jharkhand Chief Secretary Rajbala Verma today directed the forest officials to ensure that no timber mill should situate within a five km radius of any forest area.
Issuing directions during a video conferencing with the officials concerned, Verma directed them to identify and close the timber mills situated within that radius, an official release said here.
Verma asked the officials to prepare a list of the number of mills located in the forest areas and ensure how many mills should be re-located. The government has issued licenses to 404 timber mills, the release said.
Verma also asked all the divisional forest officers to submit letters within one week that no mill was functioning within the five km radius and encroachment into forest land be removed in their respective areas.
The officials informed that encroachment into 103 acres of forest land out of an identified 2,139.6371 hectares was removed.
