The controversial firing range the police claim to have taken on lease, is being used by the Punjab Police and the Home Guards on the Shivalik foothills along the Bhindernagar-Nurpur Bedi road. Forest Department officials allege that it is affecting the environment and also scaring away the birds that arrive here from Central Asia every winter.

The site that falls in Asron village under the Garshankar Forest Division in Nawashahr district is being used by the Punjab Police and the paramilitary forces for firing practice without formal permission from the Ministry of Environment, say Forest Department officials.

Though the Roopnagar Police claim to have acquired seven acres of land from the panchayat of Asron on lease, forest officials insist that the site is a part of the protected area and cannot be used fornon-forest purposes without specific permission from the Central Government.

Terming the firing range as `unauthorised', Garshankar Divisional Forest Officer R K Mishra confirmed that the police did not have the requisite `No Objection Certificate' from the Ministry of Environment and Forests. He pressed the point home, adding that the police could not have obtained the certificate without formally applying to his office, which ironically was not done in this case.

Sources in the Forest Department revealed that the violation first came to their notice in March last year. The police were allegedly using the land in Garbha village in Roopnagar district. Subsequently, the district forest officer of Roopnagar shot off a letter to the SSP asking him to explain the violation of the Forest Conservation Act, 1980. The forest authorities had also recorded the statement of the villagers to substantiate the charge.

Presumably, the police had shifted the site. In its reply a copy of which is available with TheIndian Express, the police authorities denied the charge, but admitted that the land which had been acquired on lease in Asron village was being used as a firing range. Since Asron falls under the Garshankar Forest Division in Nawanshahr district, the DFO Roopnagar sounded his counterpart R K Mishra for necessary action.

According to Mishra, the police had stopped firing practice after he had intervened. The matter would be re-investigated following fresh reports of violation. Yesterday, Mishra had visited the site and found that a police team had arrived there for firing practice.

While the SP (Operations) Gurmit Singh claimed that the authorities had notified the area as a firing range, Mishra lamented that such notification also amounted to a serious violation without necessary permission of the Forest Department.

Adding that he would challenge the notification, Mishra said: ``Despite requests the police have not submitted to me copy of the notification.''

DFO Roopnagar J S Samundri confirmedthat unauthorised firing practice near the wetland had adversely affected the number of birds arriving here during winters.

Enquiries made by this correspondent at Bhindernagar village near the firing site revealed that the practice continued unabated. Villagers, who did not wish to be quoted, said the practice was done almost every morning.

While SSP Ranbir Singh Khatra was not available for comments, both SP (Headquarters) Narendra Bhargava and the SP (Operations) Gurmit Singh said that they were not sure whether the Central Government had permitted them to use the area as a firing range.