Despite SC ban, 123 saw mills operating within prohibited area
*Funds meant for forest protection used to purchase ACs

JAMMU: In what could be termed as insensitivity towards the green gold wealth, only one per cent of forest land has been demarcated in Jammu district by the Forest Department thereby leaving 99 per cent area prone to encroachment by the land grabbers. Moreover, 123 saw mills are operating within the prohibited area in contravention of the ban imposed by the Supreme Court and incident of illicit felling and consequently the outstanding damages cases have been increasing year after year due to the slackness of the Forest Department officers.

The state government has proposed a new social forestry policy to be implemented in non-forest areas to increase green cover.

“In Maharashtra, there is 19 to 20 per cent of forest land. The social forestry department has decided to provide green cover to 80 per cent of the non-forest area and will elicit cooperation from local self-government bodies in this endeavour,” officials in the department said. Water Conservation Minister Nitin Raut, who holds the charge of social forestry, has appointed a study group headed by former Chief Secretary Arun Bongirwar to formulate the policy.

The CAG has pulled up the State Forest Ministry for allegedly diverting 1,883 hectares of forest land for non-forest purposes in violation of the rules in this district of Jammu and Kashmir.

The extremely low forest cover in the Draft Development Plan-2031 for Gurgaon-Manesar Urban Complex has come under severe criticism from environmentalists and civil society groups which have demanded that the plan be brought in compliance with the forest provisions as per the national and State policies.

“The forest cover in Haryana is just 3.64 per cent which is among the lowest in the country and much lower than the national average of 22-23 per cent. The Regional Plan 2021, prepared by the National Capital Region Planning Board, and subsequent court judgments have stated that it is imperative to bring in more areas under forest so as to maintain the ecological balance and proposed that the total forest cover be 10 per cent. But the ocular estimation shows that the DDP-2031 for Gurgaon-Manesar Urban Complex has less than 4 per cent forest cover,” said environmentalist Chetan Agarwal.

The Forest Department on Friday submitted before the Kerala High Court that the Cherunelli estate in the Nelliampathy forest region has been notified as reserve forests.

According to the state, 296 acres are notified as reserve forest. The state further submitted that in an order dated January 20, 2006, the state had made it clear that any transfer of lease land by way of assignment lease or gift attracts the Forest Conservation Act, and hence lessees cannot have any absolute right to transfer the forest land to strangers.

PANJIM: Finally, the State Forest Policy is expected to see day of light, with state forest department referring the policy for legal vetting.

Forest minister Alina Saldanha said that department has already finalized the policy and has sent to law department for legal vetting. She said that policy is likely to receive green signal shortly, after which it would be implemented.

Haryana’s forest cover might be only one-sixth of the target that the state has set for itself by 2020 but this has not stopped the state government from eyeing more green areas for development act

PANJIM: Over 30 applications for diversion of forest land for mining have been received by the Forest Department since 2011, which have been kept on hold, in the absence of State Forest Policy 2011.

Former Forest Minister, Filipe Neri Rodrigues had, announced that no fresh applications for diversion of forest lands for mining would be considered by his department till a new Forest Policy for the state is framed.