The Centre has regularised two commando camps of the Assam authorities which had been constructed on forest land with out prior approvals in violation of the Van (Sanrakshan Evam Samvardhan) Adhiniyam, 1980. The Union Ministry of Atmosphere, Forest and Local weather Change of India’s Forest Advisory Committee (FAC) has granted ex-post facto clearances to those camps within the Geleky and Hailakandi reserve forests for non-forestry use of 26 hectares and 11.5 hectares of land, respectively.
Whereas granting approval, FAC has ordered the Assam authorities to pay a penalty for the violations and directed its regional workplace in Shillong to behave in opposition to senior officers of the Assam Forest Division. The Committee additionally acknowledged that there shall be no additional enlargement within the development of the camps.
The ministry’s panel granted ex-post facto clearances to those camps even because it has submitted earlier than the Nationwide Inexperienced Tribunal (NGT) that they had been constructed with out acquiring prior permissions from the Centre. Whereas NGT’s principal bench is listening to the Hailakandi case suo moto, the jap bench is listening to the Geleky case primarily based on a petition filed by Assam-based environmental activist Rohit Chowdhury.
“No future enlargement shall be allowed and additional diversion of forest land for any enlargement functions shall be allowed within the prompt case…the moment case shall not set any precedent or regularisation of ex-post facto approval in comparable issues. The approval accorded within the prompt proposal shall be topic to the order of the Hon’ble Nationwide Inexperienced Tribunal and different orders on this regard,” FAC acknowledged.
The Assam authorities, on its half, had submitted to the Centre, regardless of conclusions of illegality, that it had constructed these camps for “forest safety and conservation”, particularly conserving in view the risk from armed encroachers.
“It’s not out of any greed of land by Assam Forest or Assam Police or any diversion for industrial functions of forest land that the Battalion has been allowed to arrange. The battalion has been arrange in circumstances which can’t be mitigated by every other means by the State Govt…Govt. of Assam by its two Division specifically Assam Forest and Assam Police have completed very best for the safety of the Forest and sustaining the integrity of the state,” the Assam Forest Division had submitted to the Centre to justify the ex-post facto clearance.
Additional, it requested the Centre to condone the “inadvertent mistake” if any of its principal chief conservators of forest (PCCF) and head of forest pressure (HOFF). “The PCCF and HOFF acted on behalf of the state govt. within the curiosity of forest safety solely and never in any other case,” the state authorities submitted. The state authorities was referring to its high forest officer M Okay Yadava, who authorised the development of those camps. The setting ministry’s regional workplace in Shillong had discovered Yadava’s actions violative of the forest conservation legal guidelines and even issued a show-cause discover to him final 12 months.
It additionally requested the Centre to not impose penalties beneath the forest conservation legal guidelines, saying the forest land was diverted just for the “safety of the forest.” It stated it sacrificed 40 odd hectares of degraded land devoid of tree cowl to save lots of hundreds of hectares of remaining forests from present process additional degradation, denudation, encroachment and settlements.
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