Mahendranagar, Feb. 28:The District Forest Office, Kanchanpur, has started evicting illegal settlers who have settled by encroaching forest areas by setting fire to their houses.

In this connection, the district administration has set fire to 63 houses owned by the illegal settlers encroaching on 75 bigaha land in Khula Machhiti, along the banks of the Mahakali river some two kilometres east of Brahmadev Mandi of Mahendranagar Municipality.

The extreme step of setting the illegal houses and sheds on fire was taken by the district administration after repeated notice to vacate the land were not heeded to by the settlers. A team of police and forest guards  led by forest officer Dipak Gyawali set the illegal houses on fire.

Cattle, grains and other household goods were safely taken out from the houses before setting them afire.

It is learnt that the forest Mafiosi from Dadeldhura, Baitadi and Kanchanpur districts had encroached on the virgin forest land there and built houses, schools and cleared forest for farming. They had also applied to the district administration office for registering the land in their names. According to local people, many of them were Maoist workers.