Team Herald
SANCOALE: The identification of private forest land unlocked for commercial activities gained credence after villagers of Sancoale burst in protests over the Bhutani project in the village.
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The report is relevant to those opposing the project since in Serial No. 199 in the list of survey numbers not qualifying private forests, criteria reviewed by the review committee meeting held on 10/06/2020, is Survey No. 257/1 in Sancoale village.
“Land under Survey No. 257/1 is the land on which the Bhutani project is coming up,” asserted Sherlekar as he moaned about the indiscriminate change of private forest titles for commercial use.
“Survey No. 257/1 is the land on which the Bhutani project is coming up and the de-notification of this land from private forest for commercial purposes is not right ,” argues environmentalist Sreeja Chakraborty.
Goa had 41.20 square kilometres of private forest land based on a report that took five years to compile and presented to the Goa Bench of the Bombay High Court on June 30, 2008.
The report was challenged by NGO Goa Foundation and the matter was transferred to the National Green Tribunal (NGT) which set up a Review Committee under the chairmanship of former Deputy Conservator of Forests Deepshika Sharma.
“The Sharma committee reviewed areas identified by Sawant and Karapurkar and submitted a report on August 18, 2020, identifying 46.1 sq kms as Private Forests,” reads the report on the Forest Department website.
“The problem is not just about one, two or three projects where private forests have vanished and concrete structures have appeared. What is frightening is the reasoning behind notifying our private forests,” argues Swapnesh Sherlekar, researcher and activist, on land issues.
