SC RENDERS GREEN JUSTICE, ORDERS NATIONWIDE SIT TO PROBE RESERVED FOREST LAND GRAB

A clear indication that environmental issues will be dealt with the gravitas they deserve, the Supreme Court this week pronounced three crucial directives that will go a long way in preventing misuse of forest land.

- T.K. Vineeth @ Kochi

In the first order, an SC bench led by Chief Justice B.R. Gavai declared that the 1998 transfer of about 12 hectares (30 acres) of reserve forest land in Pune's Kondhwa Budruk area was "totally illegal". The land, ostensibly allotted to a private person for agriculture purposes, was first de-reserved and later sold to a builder to develop a housing project.

The SC ordered that the land be handed over to the Maharashtra forest department within three months. According to Section 2 of the Forest (Conservation) Act 1980, no forest land can be de-reserved or used for any non-forestry purposes without the Central government's permission.

Second, ruling in the same case, the court directed all states and Union territories to set up special investigation teams to probe if any reserved forest land in the possession of the revenue department was allotted to any private parties for non-forestry purposes. The SITs must be formed within a year and such lands must be handed over to the forest department, the bench, also comprising judges Augustine George Masih and K. Vinod Chandran, ruled. If taking back possession of such land would not be in the larger public good, then the government must recover the cost of the land from the parties to whom the land was allotted, the order said. The money thus collected should only be used for afforestation, it added.