PANJIM: National Green Tribunal (NGT) has directed the Goa government to complete identification and demarcation of private forest in the State by March 2018.
The Western Bench chaired by Prof Dr P C Mishra directed the State government to place on record an affidavit of completing the work of demarcation by March 2018. Meanwhile, the State is directed to file quarterly progress report till completion of the work. The order was issued on a petition filed by Goa Foundation. The entire process was supposed to be completed by April 2017.
When the matter came up for hearing on Monday, the State government sought additional time of 18 months for completing the entire exercise of identification of ‘forest like area’ in Goa.
Learned Counsel Fawia Mesquita, appearing on behalf of Goa, filed an affidavit on record showing the progress of work. She submitted that there has been delay in completion of identification process due to various reasons and another 18 months’ time would be required to complete the process in South and North Goa.
However, the applicant objected to the same and prayed for an extension of shorter time for the purpose.
“Since the identification work in the North Goa is complete, as per the submission of State, and in South Goa 70 percent work is over, extension of another six months excluding the monsoon is justified,” Goa Foundation said in its prayer.
The identification of private forest area in the State had commenced in 2014. Government had constituted two committees- North Goa and South Goa for identifying and demarcating private forests.
As per the guidelines/criteria for identifying privately-owned areas as private forests, all areas contiguous to government forests having 75 per cent forestry species composition and with 40 per cent canopy cover, will be considered as forest, irrespective of the size of the plot. While in another areas, besides 40 per cent canopy cover and 75 per cent forestry species composition, the minimum area will also be considered and it should not be less than 5 hectares.
