PANJIM: With large forest patches at Vagheri hill being cleared for an alleged eco-tourism project, the State government is planning to declare the area as “eco-sensitive” to protect it from further destruction.
The Minister for Forest Vishwajit Rane on Monday chaired a joint meeting of officials of Department of forest and town and country planning to discuss declaring Vagheri, located in Sattari taluka, as an “eco-sensitive” area.
If you enjoyed reading this article, you can help support our journalism by adding OHeraldo as a preferred source.
During the meeting, directions were also issued to the Principal Chief Conservator of Forest (PCCF), Chief Conservator of Forest (CCF) and Deputy Conservator of Forest North and South, to lead an investigation on the systematic forest canopy clearance and that the report should be submitted as soon as possible.
Rane said that the file to declare Vagheri hill as eco-sensitive area, has been moved to the government.
“I would like to draw attention to how illegalities have occurred. We can see that the hill at Vagheri has been cleared from the top but no report has been filed. This is done by a few landowners who have sold their property to outsiders,” Rane said as he posted satellite and Google image of the Vagheri hill on his social media.
Following media reports, the forest department had earlier this month inspected the Vagheri hill cutting site and found that the work is being carried out without permission. Trees were being cut down without permission, in violation of Section 8 of Goa Preservation of Trees Act, 1984.
The department, last week, suspended the Range Forest Officer (RFO) Vivek Gaonkar, on duty at Vagheri Hill at Western Ghat, for failing to stop the hill cutting work. Show cause notice was also issued to the then Deputy Conservator of Forest (DCF) Santosh Fadte for failing to take action.
During the meeting, the Minister instructed the officials to adopt satellite and Google imagery technique to monitor eco-sensitive areas every 15 days. He said that a nodal officer will be appointed along with a dedicated team to monitor violations so that the people don’t take advantage of loopholes in the law.
