Uttarakhand HC Issues Notices To CBI In Missing Forest Boundary Pillar Case

A Division bench of the Uttarakhand High Court on Wednesday issued notices to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), Union Government, and the Uttarakhand Government in connection with the disappearance

of 7,375 forest boundary pillars in the Mussoorie Forest Division.

Hearing a Public Interest Litigation (PIL), the bench headed by Justice Manoj Tiwari directed respondents to file their counter affidavits within six weeks. The Court also impleaded the Survey of India and the Supreme Court’s Central Empowered Committee (CEC) as parties to the case and listed the matter for further hearing on February 11.

During the proceedings, the High Court observed that the disappearance of such a large number of boundary pillars in an ecologically sensitive region like Mussoorie is a “very serious issue”.

The petitioner’s counsel, Gaurav Kumar Bansal, submitted that “the systematic removal of these crucial demarcation markers has led to unchecked encroachments, illegal constructions, and large-scale ecological damage in one of the country’s most fragile forest ecosystems”.

The PIL filed by environmentalist Naresh Chaudhary, sought directions to the Survey of India to conduct a comprehensive, scientific, and geo-referenced survey of all forest boundaries in the Mussoorie Forest Division, with the objective of accurately identifying and restoring the missing pillars within a fixed timeframe. The petition also calls for digitisation of forest land records, transfer of forest land presently under the control of the Revenue Department to the Forest Department, and the implementation of an ecological restoration and reclamation plan.

The issue surfaced in 2023 after then Chief Conservator of Forests (Working Plan) Sanjiv Chaturvedi ordered a physical verification of boundary pillars. A subsequent report by the then Divisional Forest Officer, Mussoorie, revealed that 7,375 of the 12,321 boundary pillars were missing on the ground. The petition alleged that the large-scale disappearance has facilitated encroachments and caused significant environmental degradation.