Since the present government has no political axe to grind or any vested interest to serve, it is ideally placed to go all-out against such encroachment. It can take stern measures in this regard, the goal being not only a prevention of such criminal acts in future but also a recovery of the land already lost to the encroachers. It is not merely Bhawal forest which needs to be reclaimed but other areas in the country as well, since altogether 2,62,492 acres of forests have been grabbed by encroachers nationwide. The authorities, as part of their on-going offensive against corruption, must move swiftly and decisively against the collusive network that has been behind the land grab. This can be done through a detailed examination of the original land records maintained by the forest department and thereby spotting the fraud that has been perpetrated. It will be a hard job since these forestlands have been robbed through forgery of land records and other documents through collusion between corrupt revenue and forest officials. That is where the second priority of the authorities should come in, namely, identifying these officials and charging them under the relevant provisions of the law. Then comes the matter of retrieving the land records that are allegedly lost owing to what is described as torn record books and the like. What the forest department can do is go for an updating of land records and taking effective measures toward a computerisation of the system. In an era of technology, there can be no excuses about a difficulty in maintaining proper records.

Part of the job of the government is to go after people who have, in the name of setting up industries, trusts and the like, occupied forestland and haul them up before the law. Unless corrective steps are taken, and soon, there is a danger that increasingly larger areas of forestland will be lost, condemning the nation to unmitigated environmental disaster.