HERALD REPORTER
PANJIM, JULY 7 — Goa Foundation today brought to the notice of the High Court
that the area under private forest is just around 4,144 hectares as against
7,031 hectares identified by the Sawant and Karapurkar Committees. When the
matter on private forest came up for hearing on Monday morning, the counsel for
the petitioner Adv Norma Alvares told the Court that though she appreciates the
efforts of the Forest Department, the area of private forests located is 4,144
hectares much less than the tentative area of 7,031 hectares identified as
private forests by the Sawant and Karapurkar Committees.
Pointing out this disparity, Adv Alvares further said, this means, 40 per cent
of the private land holdings have been lost.
However, Advocate General Subodh Kantak told the Court that the State
Government had issued directions not to issue any construction permissions in
the areas tentatively earmarked as private forest until survey is completed.
The survey report also indicated that in some cases actual land holdings
identified by the State Level Expert Committee (SLEC) were of smaller
proportion but during physical verification it was found that land holdings
tentatively identified were of much bigger proportion.
Of the 640 private land holdings, the Forest Department has completed the work
of locating 612 private land holdings spread across 52 villages and in the
remaining villages work is in progress. The SLEC had identified 640 private
land holdings across the State. The affidavit filed by the Forest Department in
the writ petition by Goa Foundation, states, of the balance 28 land holdings
they have not been able to locate 15 for want of survey numbers. The
Committee’s report did not indicate any survey number. The work is in progress
in earmarking seven land holdings whereas in case of six, they were unable to
complete the work due to objections from locals and owners of land.
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