, R C Laloo, on Tuesday told the Assembly.
“A total of 1,309 hectares have been encroached,” the minister said in reply to a query by Opposition legislator T D Shira.
The minister said encroachment of reserved forest land appeared to be a “continuous process” occurring since pre-Independence days, though it had come down substantially in areas except forests adjacent to Assam and urban areas.
Most of the cases relating to these are pending in the district courts, he said.