Centre lets Goa use pvt forest for compensatory afforestation

Panaji: Owners of private forest land in Goa may get more value than expected if they sell it, as Union govt has allowed state govt to use private forest land for compensatory afforestation and transfer it to the forest department.

The decision came from the Union environment ministry after state govt urged the allowance of private forest land to be offered for compensatory afforestation. The ministry stated that the matter was examined by the authority concerned, and based on the recommendation of the advisory committee and the approval of its competent authority.

“Private forest lands may be considered for the purpose of raising compensatory afforestation, provided these lands are recorded as forest lands in govt records and are treated as forest lands under the Van (Sanrakshan Evam Samvardhan) Adhiniyam, 1980 rules and guidelines,” said the Union ministry in a letter to state govt.
“In such cases, these private forest lands may be used for compensatory afforestation provided they are made available double in extent to the forest land being diverted, and are transferred and mutated in favour of the forest department and subsequently notified as protected forest under the Indian Forest Act, 1927 or local forest act, as per the provisions of the Van (Sanrakshan Evam Samvardhan) Rules, 2023 and guidelines issued thereunder,” said the ministry.

Chief minister Pramod Sawant, in a letter to Union govt, said, “The decision will not only help the landowners of private forest land to fetch a better price for their lands but also enable the forest department to scientifically manage the forest on private lands through a working plan”.
In March, Supreme Court, in an interim relief order, directed state govt not to issue any further conversion sanads to 855 identified and demarcated survey numbers as private forest by the Thomas and Araujo committees. This would stop the conversion of a total of 8.64sqkm of private forest land in Goa.

“We grant time of four weeks to the respondent to file a counter affidavit. In the meanwhile, no further conversion sanad shall be issued in respect of the lands mentioned in prayer clause (a),” stated the division bench of justices Abhay Oka and Ujjal Bhuyan.

State govt appointed two expert committees headed by former foresters V T Thomas and Francisco Araujo in 2012. These two committees were disbanded in March 2018 but submitted their final reports in Dec 2018.
Both committees, after field visits and ground demarcation, together identified a total of 8.64sqkm of private forests as “final” in both North and South Goa. The rest of the areas identified were marked “provisional,” awaiting further visits and confirmation.