Thousands in South panic over private forests notification; file objections

Published on:

13 Mar 2020, 12:02 am

Team Herald

PONDA: Thousands of private landowners in South Goa are panic stricken after learning on Thursday that their properties have been notified as private forests and that they have just one day left to file their objections.

The affected property owners rushed to the office of the Deputy Conservator of Forests, at Ponda, to file their objections, on Thursday. They waited in long queues till evening and filed their objections.

The affected landowners are strongly opposed to declaring their property as private forests. “Lands coming under settlement zones, having houses and fruit bearing trees have been identified as private forests,” an affected landowner said.

“How can a land become a private forest without having forest trees and without field survey?” he asked.

The affected landowners fear that once their properties are declared as private forests, they would require permission from the forest department even for carrying out minor works on the properties.

The landowners have demand that the government immediately cancel notification or extend the time for filing objections as many of the landowners are still unaware about the notification published by the government on February 15 in newspapers, having the lowest circulation.

“Most of the people in South Goa read Herald and so if the notification had been published in Herald and a local Marathi daily with maximum circulation, the affected could have easily noticed it and filed objections long ago,” another affected landowner said.

It is learnt that the landowners learnt about the notification through WhatsApp social media posts.

Landowners Seby Gonsalves from Varca, Milagris Menezes from Curtorim, and Savio Fernandes from Curchorem said that their lands were included under private forest without their knowledge.

Do not panic: official

A forest official at Ponda on Thursday said that more than 1200 objections have been received by them, so far. He said that the landowners need not panic as “this (notification in newspapers) is just a private forest identification stage.” “We will inform the land owners who filed objections to stay present for field inspection of private forest land,” he said. He said that subsequent to the inspection, demarcation of private forests would take place.

The officer said that the exercise of identifying private forests is being done in pursuance of Supreme Court guidelines. He said that in 1997, some NGOs approached the SSC complaining rampant felling of trees in private forests. Following this, the SC issued orders to State governments to identify the private forests so as to protect the trees from rampant felling.