During the past two months illegal occupants of 85 hectares of protected lands in Tehran Province have been evicted by the Department of Environment (DoE). “Fortunately, with the cooperation of the judiciary and Shemiranat governor we have taken effective measures,” said Seyyed Ahmad Nabavi, general director of inspection and evaluation at the DoE.
“The people occupy the land by first planting trees. Then they build a wall around the ‘tree plantations’ and slowly after a period of time start construction of buildings,” he said IRNA reported.
At present, the process of releasing lands has been completed in Lavasanat District and necessary measures have been taken to curb the seizure of lands in Rudbar-e Qasran District as well.
“During the past 10 years, more than 22 million square meters has been occupied illegally and we have released 15 million square meters so far; however our first priority is to prevent new illegal seizures, he added.
Most illegal occupancies have occurred in Shemiranat county in Tehran Province. The county is subdivided into the two districts of Rudbar-e Qasran and Lavasanat.
The protected areas and conservation zones in the country are so marked because of their rich, natural biodiversity.
