The Hsinchu Forest District Office plans to file charges against the privately owned Taoyuan Irrigation Association over the organization’s alleged profiteering by occupying and leasing out four plots of public land covering more than 226,000m2 in a Shihmen Reservoir catchment basin.
The Water Resources Agency’s Geographic Data System shows that the plots are in the No. 4 National Forest, overseen by the Forestry Bureau.
The plots are close to Taoyuan’s Dasi District (大溪) and have a combined market value of about NT$140 million (US$4.44 million), the data showed.
Photo: Sean Lin, Taipei Times
An independent investigation by Green Formosa Front standing director Lin Chang-mao (林長茂) found that a mountain road leading to the plots had been fenced off twice, with a sign on a gate further down the road reading: “Fierce dogs inside. Do not enter.”
He said that suspected tenants have over recent years built a temple dedicated to the Four-Faced Buddha, which would likely be open to the public in the future.
A comparison of an aerial map in the system, created in 2013, and a more recent image from Google Maps found more potential illegal developments in the national forest, including two plots that used to have a high tree density.
While gathering evidence on one of the plots yesterday, Lin was confronted by a pack of dogs apparently there to scare off any “intruders.”
He was later confronted by the purported tenants, a man and a woman, who happened to be nearby.
When the man asked Lin what he was doing there, Lin countered by asking the man whether he knew that he was occupying public land.
The man denied the allegation, claiming that he leased the plot from the Taoyuan Irrigation Association.
“How dare you act so blatantly after I’ve caught you trespassing?” the man said to Lin.
Hsinchu Forest District Office official Chou Yi-che (周以哲) later rejected the man’s claim, saying that his agency is working to prosecute the association, which illegally leased the plots belonging to the Forestry Bureau.
He said that the agency would “definitely” take legal action against the association once it finishes assessing the structures, including the tarmac and concrete used in the construction of the temple.
He said that the temple would likely face demolition and the measurements are a reference to the areas that must be restored to their former states.
Chou’s remarks drew criticism from Lin, who said that it has been six months since he first informed the agency of the potential violations and that the agency has been slow to take action.
Asked to comment on the issue, Forestry Bureau Deputy Director-General Yang Hung-chih (楊宏志) said that by law, all temples built in national forests after July 1993 should be demolished.
The bureau would see to it that any illegal structures in the forest are demolished and all illegally occupied land vacated, he said.
Under the Forestry Act (森林法), only public infrastructure such as schools and hospitals, or facilities that can improve national defense, traffic or water distribution, may be built in national forests.
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