Panaji: Supreme Court on Wednesday accepted Goa government’s criteria to identify private forests and dismissed the Goa Foundation’s challenge of the criteria.
Advocate general Devidas Pangam said that state government criteria to identify private forests is that the area should be contiguous to government forest lands and, if in isolation, the minimum area identified should be 5 hectare.The canopy density should not be less than 0.4. The third criterion is that 75% of the tree composition of such lands should be of forestry species.
The Goa Foundation had challenged this criteria and stated that areas of 1 hectare and having canopy density of minimum 0.1 should also be open to being identified as private forests.
Earlier, the Goa Foundation had approached the National Green Tribunal (NGT), which had also upheld state government’s criteria.
Following this, the Goa Foundation approached Supreme Court.
Claude Alvares of Goa Foundation said that through the stay on activities in areas identified as private forests for the duration the matter was on the courts, the foundation has been able to prevent activities in around 500 hectares of area under tree cover.
CREDAI-GOA, which was one party in the NGT matter, said that it feels privileged that Supreme Court has accepted the methodology and criteria for identifying private forest followed by government of Goa and further confirmed the NGT’s order in the same matter. This has also vacated the stay on granting conversion sanads for properties having an area of more than 1 hectare and having a canopy density of more than 0.1, which was in effect in the state since April 2015.
Based on Supreme Court directives, Goa government had constituted the Sawant Committee for the identification of government and private forests in Goa. But the committee could not complete its task and therefore the Karapurkar Committee was constituted. Both these committees had adopted the directions issued by the high court for the identification of forest areas — 75% of the land must have forestry species, the canopy density of the land should be minimum 0.4%, and the land should be a minimum 5 hectares.
After other committees were set up to identify and demarcate private forests in Goa and several challenges were made to the identified areas, the matter finally reached NGT. In November 2021, the forest department submitted four interim reports to the tribunal, which were challenged by the Goa Foundation.
Advocate general Devidas Pangam said that state government criteria to identify private forests is that the area should be contiguous to government forest lands and, if in isolation, the minimum area identified should be 5 hectare.The canopy density should not be less than 0.4. The third criterion is that 75% of the tree composition of such lands should be of forestry species.
The Goa Foundation had challenged this criteria and stated that areas of 1 hectare and having canopy density of minimum 0.1 should also be open to being identified as private forests.
Earlier, the Goa Foundation had approached the National Green Tribunal (NGT), which had also upheld state government’s criteria.
Following this, the Goa Foundation approached Supreme Court.
Claude Alvares of Goa Foundation said that through the stay on activities in areas identified as private forests for the duration the matter was on the courts, the foundation has been able to prevent activities in around 500 hectares of area under tree cover.
CREDAI-GOA, which was one party in the NGT matter, said that it feels privileged that Supreme Court has accepted the methodology and criteria for identifying private forest followed by government of Goa and further confirmed the NGT’s order in the same matter. This has also vacated the stay on granting conversion sanads for properties having an area of more than 1 hectare and having a canopy density of more than 0.1, which was in effect in the state since April 2015.
Based on Supreme Court directives, Goa government had constituted the Sawant Committee for the identification of government and private forests in Goa. But the committee could not complete its task and therefore the Karapurkar Committee was constituted. Both these committees had adopted the directions issued by the high court for the identification of forest areas — 75% of the land must have forestry species, the canopy density of the land should be minimum 0.4%, and the land should be a minimum 5 hectares.
After other committees were set up to identify and demarcate private forests in Goa and several challenges were made to the identified areas, the matter finally reached NGT. In November 2021, the forest department submitted four interim reports to the tribunal, which were challenged by the Goa Foundation.