GUWAHATI, June 6? While political expediency on the part of majority of our politicians on the issue of eviction of encroachers from forest land has been vitiating the social atmosphere here, the Supreme Court of India and the Union Environment and Forest Ministry, with the prudence to save the environment and maintain the ecological balance for posterity, have adopted a firm stand against the encroachers. The Supreme Court of India (SC) in its order in connection with the Interlocuttory Application (IA) Numbers 703 and 502, directed the Chief Secretaries of the States of Orissa, West Bengal, Karnataka, Tamilnadu, Assam, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Chhatisgarh and Kerala, on February 18 last, to file a reply in relation to the steps required to be taken by them to prevent further encroachment of forest land and in particular in the hilly terrains, national parks and sanctuaries etc.
The order passed by the court of Justice B N Kirpal, Justice Doraiswami Raju and Justice Arijit Pasayat, also said, ?It should also be indicated as to what steps have been taken to clear the encroachments from the forest which have taken place at an earlier point of time.? This was the SC order which made the State Forest Department to step up its drive against the encroachers on forest land, said Forest Department sources here, adding, the Department has been carrying on eviction drives since long with a view to freeing the forests from encroachments. The judicial intervention in matters related to conservation of forest, at the SC level, started in the recent past, however, with the SC order passed by the court of Justice J S Verma and Justice B N Kirpal, on December 12, 1996, in connection with Writ Petition (Civil) No. 202 of 1995 (with WP Civil) No 171/96). The said order directed all State Governments to clear all the forest areas from non-forest use. ?Every State Government must promptly ensure total cessation of all such activities forthwith?, the order said.
In the same case, the court of the Chief Justice of India, Justice A S Anand and Justice B N Kirpal said, interalia, on January 15, 1998 (para 21), ?To ensure protection of the forest wealth the forest officers in NE States may be empowered with authority to investigate, prosecute and confiscate on the lines of powers conferred on the forest officers in many other States in the country.? Moreover, in the said order, the SC also directed (Para 22), ?The State Government shall be responsible for providing all facilities, including, security and police force to strictly enforce first protection measures..?. It also said that the Chief Secretary, should review the various matters concerning forest protection and development in his State at least once every six month with senior forest officers upto the rank of conservator of forests.
On the otherhand, the Gauhati High Court in its September 19, 2000 judgement, in connection with the Civil Rule (PIL) No 648 of 1993, said, ?The respondents (State Government and others) therefore, must make all genuine efforts to ensure that illegal felling of trees is immediately checked, plantation and afforestation be taken up on same special footing to make up the shortfall in forest cover, encroachments on forest area be cleared and no deforestation is undertaken. Flora and fauna be preserved?. This order was passed by the court of the then Chief Justice Brijesh Kumar and Justice N C Jain.
On May 3, 2001, Additional Director General (Wildlife) of the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests S C Sharma wrote to State?s Principal Secretary (Forests) A K Jain (DO No 11-22/2000-FC)? ?I would like to draw your kind attention towards the statement pertaining to encroachments on forest land in and around Guwahati city submitted to this Ministry by the Principal Chief Conservator of Forests, Assam... ?It can be seen that a good chunk of forest land is under encroachments. You will appreciate that such patches of forests serve as green lungs to the city. Also, it shall not be out of place to mention that the Hon?ble Supreme Court of India has clearly directed that no non-forestry activity shall be carried out on forest land without prior approval of the Central Government under Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980. As such, it is requested to kindly instruct your officials for eviction of those encroachments immediately and send the action taken report to this Ministry.? It is worthmentioning here that forest and environment are the concurrent list subjects and without the concurrence of the Central Government the State Government can not go for any non-forest activity in any forest area, let alone issuing a Myadi Patta to an encroacher by the State Revenue Department inside a forest area, said the Forest Department sources here.
Then came the final directive from Inspector General of Forests of the Union Government Dr V K Bahuguna on May 3, 2002 (No 7-16/2002-FC). Among other things, it said, ?Hon?ble Supreme Court has also been greatly concerned with this pernicious practice (encroachment) and in their order of 23-11-2001 in IA No. 703 in WP No 202/95 have restrained the Central Government from regularization of encroachments in the country. There is now a need to frame a time-bound programme for eviction of the encroachers from the forest lands for which following steps are suggeste :
(i) All encroachments which are not eligible for regularisation as per guidelines issued by this Ministry vide No. 13. 1/90-FP (1) dated 18.9.90 should be summarily evicted in a time-bound manner and in any case not later than 30th September, 2002...
(vi) A comprehensive list of encroachments in your State with current status of eviction process etc. may please be prepared as the base line information and a copy of the same be also sent to this Ministry preferably by June 30th, 2002. Principal Chief Conservator of Forests may be bound to give detail progress report of the action taken, area evicted and area reclaimed/planted etc every quarter commencing from July 2002.
(vii) It may please be noted that the Ministry may be constrained to link processing of requests for clearance under Forest (Conservation) Act 1980, approval of relevant working plan and funding under Centrally sponsored schemes as well, to the progress shown in eviction of the encroachers as per the instant guidelines.? After this directive, the State Forest Department intensified its drive against the encroachers. The directive was issued to the Chief Secretaries, Forest Secretaries and the Principal Chief Conservators of Forests of all the States and Union Territories of the country.