Authorities in Jammu and Kashmir’s Anantnag district on Saturday put on hold an eviction drive from forest land following resentment from the forest dwellers. The forest dwellers in Nagras area of Qazigund, in the south Kashmir district, were served with notices by the officials of the Forest Department a few days ago, asking them to vacate. “We have been living here for three generations now, for 300 years and this is not a new encroachment. If there is anyone who guards these forests, it is the Gujjars. There is a connection between a Gujjar and a forest. Our sustenance and livelihood depends on these forests,” Riyaz Ah Chechi, a resident told excelsior
