PANAJI: Goa Foundation, a Non-Government Organisation based in Goa, filed a petition with the National Green Tribunal (NGT) 21 years ago. The petition has finally been identified by the NGT and has led to classification of 46.11 square kilometres of land as private forest in the state. In doing so, NGT has rejected a Government of Goa report which had reduced the private forest cover to 41.20 square kilometres. The order issued by Justice Sheo Kumar Singh, Judicial Member, and Dr Satyawan Singh Gabryal, Expert Member, brings the curtain down on a long-fought litigation. He order states that since the petition had remained pending in both the Supreme Court and the High Court, the order of the Tribunal must be taken as final and ‘the matter should come to rest’.
Various state committees were set up after the Supreme Court ordered in 1996 that tree felling in all forest areas would be covered by the Forest Conservation Act 1980, irrespective of ownership, making it important to identify and demarcate private forests, based on canopy density, contiguous forest cover and other aspects.
Two committees since 2002, the SM Sawant Committee and the HY Karapurkar Committee, identified a total of 67.12 square kilometres of forests on private lands in Goa. But, according to the Goa Foundation, a “government’s demarcation report produced in 2008 reduced the private forests identified by the S&K reports to 41.20 square kilometres. Huge plots belonging to some major reality firms were found excluded from the definition of forest.” The NGO challenged this report in the High Court, which was transferred to the NGT in 2013. In 2018, on the orders of the NGT, a review committee was set up to probe the disputed area. This committee was headed by Deepshikha Sharma, IFS and Deputy Conservator (Working Plan). The review committee identified an additional area of 4.91 square kilometres besides the 41.20 square kilometres demarcated by the Forest Department, taking the total forest cover on private lands in the state to 46.11 square kilometres.
On Wednesday, the NGT, having probed all reports, said, “On perusal of report of various committees…and after submission made by parties at both sides, we are of the considered opinion that total of 46.11 square kilometres (i.e 41.20 square kilometres of the forest area demarcated by the Forest Department out of 67.12 sq km identified by Sawant Committee and Karapurkar Committee, along with 4.91 square kilometres private forest area identified by the Review Committee) is the private forest area in the state of Goa.”
The verdict ends the confusion private plot owners have had on their land’s forestry status. “The NGT had directed the final forest report to be deposited with it by July 2019. However, because of the appointment of the D’Souza Committee, the Goa government was forced to pay Rs1 crore performance guarantee, Rs 50 lakh as penalty, and Rs 61 lakh additional fines,” said Claude Alvares of Goa Foundation.
Further, the Goa government has been directed to “update the revenue records in accordance with the rules immediately”. The NGT has also directed the government to pay the Goa Foundation the costs of the litigation.