Team Herald
PANJIM: A whopping 10,258 objections have been received by the State government with respect to private forest identified by Thomas and Araujo Committee. The last date for filing objections is till August 31.
The information was provided to the State Legislative Assembly by Chief Minister Dr Pramod Sawant, who also holds Forest portfolio, to a question tabled by Independent MLA Rohan Khaunte. Sawant said the demarcated private forest area as on date is 41.20 sq kms and additional 3.87 sq km area has been identified by Committee headed by Joint Secretary Revenue, which is sub judice. Also, another 32.29 sq km area is provisionally identified by Thomas and Araujo Committee, which is under review by a committee under Chief Conservator of Forests.
“Total 10,258 objections have been received in respect of private forest identified by Thomas and Araujo Committee and the last date for receipt of objections is August 31,” he informed the House.
The Chief Minister said the details of the demarcated 41.20 sq km area have already been shared with Town and Country Planning (TCP) Department and the same is already reflected in the Regional Plans.
“The final report on review of remaining left out area of Sawant and Karapurkar Committee has been submitted to the National Green Tribunal and the matter is sub judice. Once the matter is finalised, the final demarcation of Private Forests will be undertaken and the list will be submitted to TCP to include it in the RP,” he said.
The criteria considered for identification of private forest area is 75 per cent of the crop composition of such lands should be of forest species, the area should be either contiguous to Government forest land or if in isolation the minimum area so identified should be 5 ha. In case of mangroves, area less than 5 ha shall also be considered and canopy density should not be less than 0.4.
The Government had in April 2018, constituted a committee to review the private forest findings of the Sawant and Karapurkar committee. The committee had to assess the areas of 41.20 sq kms identified as private forest by Sawant and Karapurkar committee, nearly a decade ago. However, the government rejected the Review Committee report, as it failed to hear the aggrieved people.
Thereafter in August 2019, it constituted a special three-member committee under Joint Secretary Revenue to finalise the private forest report based on the review committee findings and after hearing the affected parties.
