The Regional Commissioner who was accompanied by the the regional security committee and Chunya District Natural Resources officers witnessed how the livestock keepers had cleared a large part of the forest and built residential houses.
He was on an official visit of the area last week. After witnessing the destruction, the RC held a public meeting with residents from all villages of Mafyeko Ward, and cautioned them that he would not sit and watch the forest established by the government perish. He said that for those who would fail to depart from the forest in two weeks, would be removed by force and would have no one to blame for that.
“After two weeks I will come and those who will still be living in the forest will have to pay for their disobedience,” he said.
Acting Chunya District Commissioner (DC) Mr William Ntinika said that he and his team would go to evict the invaders before the given time. “We have been warning these people for quite a long time now, but their response has been negative.
So for this time, before the Regional Commissioner comes, we will be there. They should therefore start leaving the area on their own now,” he said. District’s Head of Land and Natural Resources Mr Edward Syadala said that the invaders had been threatening to kill officers from his department, preventing them from entering the forest.
“We placed land marks which showed clearly forest borders, but the invaders removed them and continued with their destructive activities inside the forest. This has been a problem to our efforts to conserve the forest,” he explained.
He continued to say that at one time, some of the officers who were on land surveying operation were detained by invaders, who agreed to release them after being paid 200,000/-. Some of the villagers, who live near the forest thanked the government for the step to save the forest which was disappearing fast.
source-www.dailynews.co.tz
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