India, April 16 -- Encroachments around the Bindal River in Dehradun's Doon Valley will be removed by June 30, the Uttarakhand government has said in an affidavit in the high court in response to a plea that pointed to dying rivers due to encroachments on the feeder drains and streams. The affidavit said encroachments on 29.5257 hectares out of 35.7135 hectares of land within the Dehradun municipal limits have been removed.

"Further, 6.1878 hectares of land is still in possession of illegal encroachers," said the affidavit filed on Tuesday as a bench of Chief Justice G Narender and Justice Alok Mahra heard Dehradun-resident Urmila Thapa's public interest litigation over tree felling and encroachments around storm water drains that flow i...